Frances brings home a math assignment from kindergarten and shows it to her mom, who says, "Wow, Frances, that assignment looks really rough!" Frances runs her hand over the paper and says, "No, mommy, it's not rough; it's smooth!" Which aspect of language is causing Frances and her mom to have some communication difficulties?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Frances and her mom are experiencing a misunderstanding due to semantics, which is the aspect of language concerned with meaning. The mom uses "rough" metaphorically to describe the difficulty of the assignment, while Frances interprets "rough" literally as a texture.

Frances Brings Home a Math Assignment from Kindergarten and Shows