'cause everybody knows what you really mean

one of my fave concepts from semantics and pragmatics class was the idea of illocutionary force: what people really mean by what they say. is it a request? do they want information? are they making a statement? sometimes the surface form and the intended meaning are skewed. but even in that case, you play the game and ignore the surface form unless you're either a) communicatively impaired or         b) obstinate. i'd go with the latter on this one.

(thanks to the seattle post-intelligencer for posting comics online :) ).