A human language is a theatre of communication where the wordplay is understood from the setting and stage design. Social communication languages in particular depend significantly on the circumstances. Be it spoken, musical, rhythmical, scripted or symbolic, each language structures a mode of perception within which the meaning of various communication functions is formulated.

All the functions of language involve the transmission of meaning. From the perspective of nature a language is a symbolic system for communicating meaning between awarenesses. Probably every living thing communicates one way or another with certain aspects of nature. Any system of transmitting meaning is a language...not just the vocalizations and scribblings of humans. Plants transmit visual and chemical messages. Insects, birds, mammals and fish all transmit and communicate meaning about territory, sex and food. The spoken and written complexification of the communication capability of humans, and their corresponding associated cerebral development, is paralleled by numerous other specializations in nature. It reveals an attitude of misplaced arrogance to promote discussions as to when humans are supposed to have evolved language. It is not a sign of divine superiority. No living thing is without it.

The numerous language functions form two broad groups. One group of functions, such as the informative, assertive and emotive, involve communications about existential phenomena. The other group, such as the grammatical and the evaluations of truth, involve communications about language itself.

Articulated or written the meaning of any word or word-group sentence depends more on the function than the grammatical structure. The intended function of the word sequence ...no eggs are impenetrable... for example, cannot be analysed from literal dictionary meanings allied with classifications into verbs and nouns etc. The meaning is driven by the function the sentence is intended to perform, the skill of the person delivering them, the awareness of the recipient and the context in which they are delivered. Articulated, they could be intended to function as a password into a cryptic society or a vulnerability warning from an historian to be careful not to fall off walls. Scripted they could function as an example of categories used by a lecturer in syllogistic logic, a pattern of syntax used by a tutor in grammar, a sample of text illustrating a printing font, an exercise for translation into another language, or an anagram of ...beg some real green paint... For aural and performance languages meaning is significantly influenced by delivery. The spoken language can be modulated by voice intonations, by carefully judged pauses, by speed of delivery, by counterpointed non-verbal body-language and gesture, and of course by choice of vocabulary...just as music is critically influenced by tempo, phrasing, instrumental choice and orchestration. The eventual communication could be quite different from a conventional common-usage meaning of the actual elements used.

Written or spoken, the meanings conveyed in language are influenced by social evolution. Even the meaning of symbolic languages like mathematics evolves over time. Although often assumed to be purely axiomatic and the results somehow logically indisputable, the concepts involved have historically been frequently in hot dispute. The concepts of zero, negative , imaginary, undefined , fraction etc. have not always been part of the language of mathematics. Their meanings have been thru much uncertainty and disagreement.

Thus it is that the meaning of any language is multifaceted, deeply imbued with a potential for ambiguity and deception, and continuously being unsettled by an unpredictable existence.

All very obvious you might think, except that most users assume that the meaning they intend is exactly what will be understood.