Communication failure and interpretive conflict. From personal disagreement to meaning troublespot ; Signs of trouble ; Different kinds of meaning question -- Making sense of ’meaning’. Meaning and the appeal to semantics ; Interpretive variation ; Time-based meaning -- Verbal disputes and approaches to resolving them. Meaning as a knockout competition ; Standards of interpretation -- Analysing disputes in different fields of law and regulation. Defamation : ’reasonably capable of bearing the meaning attributed’ ; Advertising : ’not only what is said, but what is reasonably implied’ ; Offensiveness : ’if there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable’ -- Conclusion. Trust in interpretation