I think it is tricky to think about humans and language. It is probably in Susan Langer's "Philosophy in a New Key" that she compares saying "Harry" to a person and to a dog. She pictures the person saying back,"What about Harry?" while the dog starts wagging its tail at the thought of that delightful guy. My wife and I have been together for more than sixty years. I suspect that if she says the dill pickle sandwiches are strawberry jam sandwiches, I will taste strawberry jam and not dilled cucumbers. Notice that she has to SAY the food is jam. I doubt if I will be as affected if she hands me a note saying they are jam.
Humans can speculate and they certainly do. If you try an academic approach and try to pin down the source of the messages you read or hear, you may be surprised at how much of what you hear is speculation. It may be good guessing and it may be poor, but lots of the language we use is about what SEEMS to be. I recommend you not get too bent out of shape about verification, since you have to do what we always do, and just use your quick judgment as to what is worthwhile info and what is probably wrong or overly distorted.
I am a partial academic in that a more traditional academic has studied an area of humanities or science. I have a PhD but I didn't go to graduate school until after I had taught 5th grade for four years. Teaching 5th grade or any other sort of teaching involves continuous use of judgment. One tries to be polite and respectful while maintaining decorum and good order but there are few exact measures or procedures involved.
There is a wonderful but subtle effect of being educated. We usually say that a person is never finished with learning, that education is going on all the time, in all situations. Still, after some years in this school or that one, the effect of all the lessons, and books, and the company of other students, one becomes better at gauging what is true or right and what isn't.
