communication

'It's not "clitched",' he said. 'It's "hitched".'

'You see?' she said. 'Is not this just more of it? You knew exactly what I meant -- but you cannot even give me this much.'

-- Claire Keegan

I've never been able to capture quite so well why pedantry bothered me. And then, recently, I read So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan, which contained the above passage.

Conversation is an attempt to be understood. Communication has as a core goal the passage of information. Whether or not a correction of terminology is required is almost entirely dependent, in most cases and for most relationships (that of the student and teacher notwithstanding), on whether the people engaged in the conversation know what is being referred to--a shared reference between the conversants to a thing entirely within their own heads.

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