[shermantanktop]

You may be telling your cat “what a good girl you are,” but she hears 1) you want her attention 2) you are paying attention to her 3) you are being positive and friendly (by tone of voice).

Are those ideas? No, but I’d argue they are equally and sometimes more important than ideas.

That type of meta-communication is most of the substance of many human conversations as well, even if the two people are talking about the finer details of weather or whatever.