摘要：The paper poses the general question ‘to what extent must I understand another in order to adequately converse with him or her?’ Using a dramatic example it is suggested that communicating, in the sense of understanding one another, and conversing may be separable activities. As an interpretative method to explore the question further, a single instance of misunderstanding is analysed in detail, amplified by additional illustrative data. Using the results of this analysis certain tentative conclusions are arrived at concerning the relationships between understanding problems and the social structure of conversation
