It is not easy to be clear. It can be difficult for even me to know what I am trying to say. As I consider various expressions, I try to ask if they are adequate, if they do the job. What job? My underlying purpose can change right while I am deciding what to say or write. I don't find myself aiming to be obscure or twisting what I am saying. My hearing isn't very good and I have trouble understanding what my wife says. That situation isn't good for relations between the two of us. I am guessing it helps to ask about a particular word in a sentence she says, as opposed to simply saying "What?" Especially, if she is not in the room I am in, I may have trouble knowing what she said.
We nearly always watch tv with captions if you can get them.
More than 20 years ago, a published professor said to me that he found he wouldn't get an article published in a journal if it was too clear. The general idea seemed to be that "too clear" was a sign, without being mentioned, of something being too simplistic or elementary. Kenneth Clark, author of the book "Civilization", a history of art, and Robert Huges, author of "The Shock of the New" also about art, and many others, I am confident, are aware of the impulse to depict inner states, dream states, insanity and very new or incomplete ideas in broken, scattered form. Using such an approach does not appeal to me even a tiny bit.
With weak and poor hearing, it is a daily experience to know that someone said something but not to have heard all the words clearly. I also run into statements that trail off without being finished. I specialize in noticing when people say "no, yes…" or "yes, no…" I have found that an initial Yes is often an expression of sympathy or agreement and the No is more specific as in refusing another beer.
As mentioned in the linked article above, some depictions of tough guys include demonstrations of being too unconcerned with trivial niceties to bother saying much. I am taken with the motto of the state of Maryland, officially expressed in Italian for some reason but meaning in English "Manly Deeds, Womanly Words". You can see the association of testicles with real ACTION and bosoms and warmth with delicate remarks and lip work.
