Hello everyone,
How are you feeling now?

How do we know what was meant in that question? Maybe it is just a way to start a conversation, or maybe I do care about your feelings, or both. How would you know what were meant?

We assume many things during communication which helps reduce our mental load. But if we leave things unexamined and only take them on the surface level, we may deem things trivial and overlook many interesting aspects of life. We have most likely never met before and you don’t know what my voice sounds like. Whose voice did you hear as you were reading this? Am I really talking to you? Here and now we are interacting in this conversation, with you answering my questions or challenging my thoughts. Where does this happen? Where are we in time? Is that my-now and your-past when I am writing this text or is it my-future and your-now when you are reading it? Who am I and who are you? Will these questions change how we see things?

These questions motivated me to become a semanticist to study meanings. I believe if we are aware of what our speech truly means, together with their effects, it will help to make our world a better place.