pragmatics: it ain't what you say it's the way that you say it

Having looked at:
Jay Doubleyou: why is english so different from other languages? part one: vocab
Jay Doubleyou: why is english so different from other languages? part two: grammar
Jay Doubleyou: ambiguous newspaper headlines
Jay Doubleyou: ambiguity

... there are all sorts of ambiguities in the English language...

For example - the translations of 'some' and 'any' are terribly ambiguous:
Google Translate and Google Translate
some - Englisch - Deutsch Wörterbuch - leo.org and any - Englisch - Deutsch Wörterbuch - leo.org

and even the mono-lingual dictionary definitions can be confusing:

some definition, meaning - what is some in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus - Cambridge Dictionaries Online and any definition, meaning - what is any in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus - Cambridge Dictionaries Online

What is much more important is context: in each of the above, you need to scroll down to the sentences and examples; the phrases and uses; the forums where these are discussed...

Phrasal verbs have multiple meanings:
break up: definition of break up in Oxford dictionary (British & World English)
Break up - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Learning English - Face Up to Phrasals
BBC World Service | Learning English | Funky Phrasals

It's largely a question of how far a word 'wanders' from its 'concrete' meaning: we have a 'spectrum of idiomaticity' - where language tends to become less transparent and more metaphorical:

tesolteachers.net/TESOL4.pdf

Lexical approach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why has the lexical approach been so long in coming? | Education | Guardian Weekly

And it's largely a question of how you say something and how it's interpreted:

“Pragmatics is all about the meanings between the lexis and the grammar and the phonology...Meanings are implied and the rules being followed are unspoken, unwritten ones.”

“Pragmatics is a way of investigating how sense can be made of certain texts even when, from a semantic viewpoint, the text seems to be either incomplete or to have a different meaning to what is really intended. Consider a sign seen in a children's wear shop window: “Baby Sale - lots of bargains”. We know without asking that there are no babies are for sale - that what is for sale are items used for babies. Pragmatics allows us to investigate how this “meaning beyond the words” can be understood without ambiguity. The extra meaning is there, not because of the semantic aspects of the words themselves, but because we share certain contextual knowledge with the writer or speaker of the text. 

Pragmatics
Pragmatics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Discourse Pragmatics - Politeness
The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)

For example, from Fawlty Towers:



Handling complaints 2 - YouTube
A room with a view - Fawlty Towers - BBC - YouTube



Prawns are off - Fawlty Towers - BBC - YouTube

Which brings us to politeness:

Considerations for Pragmatic Performance Politeness

This section addresses the notion of politeness and its role in understanding pragmatics. What is politeness? Politeness is a very complex and intricate topic. In fact, it would almost require a complete website of its own. However, in order to give you some introductory information we briefly address it here. On a very basic level, politeness refers to the most appropriate pragmatic strategies for a given context. Traditionally, we tend to think of "being polite" as being more formal. This may be the case in many situations. However, politeness can also refer to being informal when necessary. It can be just as impolite to be formal with your best friend as it is to be very informal with a boss or professor. When learning to be pragmatically appropriate, it is most important to consider what is polite in the given situation. Social Factors Impacting Politeness In order to determine what is pragmatically appropriate, it is important to evaluate many of the contextual factors surrounding the situation. You see specific examples of how these factors affect strategy choice in the modules throughout the website. The three most common factors affecting the politeness of an utterance are: Social Distance Power Rank of Imposition Social distance refers to the relationship between the interlocutors. If two people are very close, they would have a low degree of social distance. Two strangers would typically have a high degree of social distance. In most varieties of Spanish, higher degrees of social distance result in the use of more formal language. Power refers to the power relationship between two interlocutors. You will typically find yourself in three types of power relationships. In the first, you would have equal power with the person you are talking to (e.g., a friend or colleague). In the other two, you would either have more power (e.g., as a boss, instructor) or less power (e.g., employee, student) than the person you were talking to. In Spanish, more formal and indirect language is typically used in situations where the other person has more power than you do. Rank of imposition refers to the importance or degree of difficulty in the situation. For example, in requests, a large rank of imposition would occur if you were asking for a big favor, whereas a small rank of imposition would exist when the request is small. In Spanish, high ranks of imposition tend to require more formal and complex language structures. Each one of these factors interacts and relates differently to the politeness of a communicative act. They even carry different weights in different varieties of Spanish. When learning to be pragmatically appropriate, it is important to learn which social factors are most applicable and important to the context in which you are interacting. Specific considerations for each of these factors are included in the modules of this website. We encourage you to pay special attention to them as you learn about each communicative act. Are some language varieties more polite than others? No. All language systems carry their own politeness orientation and have a way of expressing formality, informality, large or small ranks of imposition, and power relationships. We strongly caution you against ranking the "politeness" of different languages or different language varieties.

The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)

Going back to complaints:
The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)

What you think is not the same as what you say...

It all depends on context - linguistic, social and personal...

Which brings us back to Steven Pinker - and overt language versus ambiguity:



RSA Animate - Language as a Window into Human Nature - YouTube
RSA - RSA Animate - Language as a Window into Human Nature
.
.