[AnimalMuppet]

> Miscommunication occurs in most pure english interactions

Citation needed.

[Edit: On reflection, this statement is probably true, if you define "miscommunication" to be "the message sent is not exactly the same as the message received". But I think that is an unreasonable definition.

I think it is more reasonable to define "miscommunication" as "the message sent is not substantially the same as the message received". If you claim that, I'd like to see your citations.]

[efes]

I can't find the study I was thinking of which involved the extreme disparity between the sender's self rating for their ability to convey an intent and the receiver's impression.

Here is a similar abstract: http://pro.sagepub.com/content/56/1/1491.abstract

Note that emotion is also conflated with aspects like priority and whether the response is a criticism or positive acknowledgement which will affect future interactions or even immediate attempts to "repair" non-existent faults.

I personally find it slightly easier to communicate with non-native speakers over email as any bilingual must have more experience handling ambiguous communication.

In working with native speakers in open floor plans, I have seen hilarious results that I would have found all the more hilarious if I were further away from the projectiles and had fully independent finances.

(But I will concede that English is a good language for talking abstractly about subjects that are clearly neutral where it matters little if nuances are misunderstood.)

[moefh]

> But I think that is an unreasonable definition.

I don't think unreasonable in the context of this discussion.

When we use English, having a bit of miscommunication is likely harmless, and probably goes unnoticed most of the time. When we write a computer program, we really want the compiler to understand exactly what we mean.

[AnimalMuppet]

True, and good point.