Teachers: Answers to grammar / language Qs

Deciding on the meaning of isolated sentences

Almost daily, we read posts by people asking if a certain sentence is correct. And we answer those posts, saying whether the sentence in question is grammatically correct or not.
That’s ok, and hopefully it helps people understand and learn the English language from the point of view of the system, the grammar.
We do something else: we tend to say what the sentence posted means. That is also ok, as long as we provide all the possible meanings of the sentence, or as many meanings as we can when more than one make sense. But we seldom do that; we usually assign a ‘unique’ meaning to a decontextualised sentence when we don’t know what situation or context the person who asked had in mind when they posted their question. I don’t think that’s helpful.
Most people come back to say “thank you” and they won’t usually ask any further questions. Now, how can we be sure we have actually been of help? Perhaps the person who posted the question is still thinking about the context they originally thought of for the sentence/construction in question, and our answer may not have considered that context in particular. Perhaps the person will start looking for an alternative construction, since their context was not even implied in our response. I’m not saying we have to guess what each person who asks a question is thinking, but perhaps we could be a bit less ‘absolutist’ in our responses.
The same happens – this also happens very often- when people ask which sentence/construction out of a pair or a group they should use. Again, no context is given; yet we decide for them… again.
The same sentence may have several different meanings, according to the situation in which it is used. Perhaps it would be a god idea for us to ask –before posting a response- for a context. Or we could provide a few ourselves.

“I didn’t think she was going” doesn’t necessarily mean that I was wrong and that she is going, after all. Perhaps that’s the first impression we get from the sentence in isolation, but that does not mean we’re right. Here’s a situation where she is NOT going, even when the sentence might suggest the opposite:
A: “I’m going shopping. Ann has just called, she’ll be here in 10 minutes.”
B: “But, I didn’t think she was going (with you).”
A: “And she isn’t! She will only stop by for a moment before going to the club to pick up her kids.”

Someone is going to a party, and they call a taxi because it’s raining. That person would like to know which of these sentences would be correct:
1. “The taxi will arrive by 4 pm. “
2. “The taxi will have arrived by 4 pm.”
Sentence 1 is said to be a better choice than sentence 2. But, can we really say that? We are not given much in terms of context; so, on what grounds do we decide that sentence 1 is better? Is it actually *** better, in every possible situation?

Another post:
I want to know what tense to use. Very confusing.
“The weather this week HAS been somewhat better.”
What does this mean?
Answer given: It means that, during the week, the weather was better than it was before.
Now, I say, the weather “has been” is not exactly the same as the weather “was” better. The response doesn’t answer the question, which was about tense. Why “has been”? Perhaps because the week hasn’t finished yet?

Question: “You would need to be a superb amazon in order to tame her. She has this wild character.”
Is this sentence correct?
Answer: This is a question of style rather than grammar. The sentence is correct so long as you immediately go on to explain what it is that makes her character so wild. For example:
“She has this wild character. She's a crazy person at parties. She drinks, smokes, and dances like a maniac.”
My comment: Why “so long as you immediately go on to explain…”? Perhaps the wild character was explained earlier in the text and “this” has anaphoric reference.

My point: perhaps it’s our own eagerness to help which sometimes makes us give partial or incomplete explanations. We don’t usually ask for a context, and we seldom provide one ourselves in our answers. Perhaps we want to try and help everyone and answer every single question, so we don’t always take the time needed to give each question a complete, detailed answer?
I don’t know the answer to that myself, but I’ve been wondering about it lately. Should we be more careful? Or I'm being my usual fussy self here?
I know I'll try to be more careful myself in the future.

Miriam

P.S. I'm not posting this as a moderator, but as just another happy user of these forums. What I've written here is my personal opinion.