Explanation
“I heard the words, but I have not yet taken in the objection.” Something beyond successful signal reception is at issue. A contribution is to be recognised in a way that can change the next response. Listening imagery foregrounds temporal unfolding and an interlocutor whose continuation is not already controlled. Moxter's reference article considers philosophical contrasts between hearing and seeing while cautioning against crude cultural divisions. The Atlas therefore asserts neither a hierarchy of biological senses nor two exhaustive types of civilisation. Actual auditory ability is not a requirement for responsive linguistic understanding. A signed contribution can be attended to, reconstructed and answered. The metaphorical relation must remain distinguishable from its sensory source. Listening must also be separated from obedience. A person can understand an objection accurately and reject it with reasons. The relevant achievement is not predetermined assent but an answer that engages what was actually advanced. This prevents an attractive listening ideal from becoming another demand for submission.
Movement of thought
1. Begin with an exchange treated as transmission or a settled overview of information. 2. Identify the claim made through the other contribution. 3. Reconstruct that claim before assessing it. 4. Distinguish understanding from assent, obedience and mere reception. 5. Return to the initial position as an answer that may now be different and better grounded.
Scientific use case
Conversation research could examine paraphrases, questions and subsequent responses as displays of understanding. Such displays are evidence to interpret, not direct access to an inner state. No new empirical study is claimed.
Example
In an invented discussion, “That is already in the report” initially dismisses an objection. A further question reveals that the issue is the criterion used for the figures, not a missing number. The response can now address that criterion. This original scenario demonstrates a possible shift, not a measured conversational outcome.
Counterexample
Silence does not prove attentive understanding. An accurate paraphrase need not entail agreement. Neither the chosen metaphor nor its auditory vocabulary excludes deaf people or signed communication from an answerable relation.
Distinction
Attention is broader, testimony concerns an epistemic relationship, and resonance has a specific Atlas role. The listening image replaces none of their theories. Hearing and light imagery offer contrasting emphases, not total classifications of human thought.
Effect on thought and perception
Another contribution becomes a possible occasion for revision instead of raw material for a rehearsed reply. Attentiveness does not remove the need for reasons, but changes what those reasons have to address.
Resonance
An answer takes something up while remaining independent. Reasoned disagreement may show genuine uptake. Resonance is therefore neither an echo nor compulsory harmony.
Etymology
The descriptive English title gathers related sensory words into an image-field. Their ordinary differences do not establish a necessary relation between auditory capacity and linguistic understanding or provide a new history of the concept of comprehension.
Provenance
DE/EN editorially accepted on 15 October 2026. Historical context, language comparison and source status are shown separately in the full entry.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Hearing and listening metaphors“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-ADD-20261015-0040. ATLAS 259, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-ADD-20261015-0040The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Guiding question
What becomes possible when understanding is imagined as receiving another's claim rather than already possessing an overview?
Five coordinate questions
These descriptions explain the entry. They are not yet controlled register values and generate no shared register results.
- Where can the process be observed?
- Transferred hearing and listening discourse, not auditory ability itself.
- What happens to the material?
- Reconstruct that claim before assessing it.
- At what level does a change occur?
- Displays of understanding, uptake of claims and independent response.
- What temporal structure is involved?
- Temporal unfolding and a potentially changed answer matter; agreement is not presupposed.
- How can the description be tested?
- Distinguish understanding from assent, obedience and mere reception.
Historical context
The consulted article discusses philosophical oppositions of hearing and seeing and the limitations of their generalisation. It mediates the selected history. The Atlas does not convert those interpretations into an exhaustive account of two cultures or claim to have re-read all the historical originals cited there.
Cross-language distinction and terminology
Hearing and listening often distinguish perception from active attention, though usage varies. Heeding can imply compliance. The English analysis keeps the uptake of a claim distinct from a duty to accept it.
Scholarly relations: explained reading links
Each relation is named and explained. These reading links are neither shared register results nor newly canonised relation edges.
- Light metaphors of understanding · Comparison and distinction
Attention is broader, testimony concerns an epistemic relationship, and resonance has a specific Atlas role. The listening image replaces none of their theories. Hearing and light imagery offer contrasting emphases, not total classifications of human thought.
- Attention · Comparison and distinction
Attention is broader, testimony concerns an epistemic relationship, and resonance has a specific Atlas role. The listening image replaces none of their theories. Hearing and light imagery offer contrasting emphases, not total classifications of human thought.
- Resonance · Comparison and distinction
Attention is broader, testimony concerns an epistemic relationship, and resonance has a specific Atlas role. The listening image replaces none of their theories. Hearing and light imagery offer contrasting emphases, not total classifications of human thought.
- Testimony · Comparison and distinction
Attention is broader, testimony concerns an epistemic relationship, and resonance has a specific Atlas role. The listening image replaces none of their theories. Hearing and light imagery offer contrasting emphases, not total classifications of human thought.
Proposed thought pathway
What becomes possible when understanding is imagined as receiving another's claim rather than already possessing an overview?
Hearing and listening metaphors → Light metaphors of understanding → Resonance → Hearing and listening metaphors
Countertest and return
Silence does not prove attentive understanding. An accurate paraphrase need not entail agreement. Neither the chosen metaphor nor its auditory vocabulary excludes deaf people or signed communication from an answerable relation.
This route is an editorial exploration, not a necessary ordering of concepts. Return: Hearing and listening metaphors
Source scope and provenance
The texts are editorially accepted. Acceptance does not turn a reference article, abstract or register record into a full primary-source verification. Examples and the proposed thought sequence are independent Atlas applications.
- Michael Moxter: Hören. In Ralf Konersmann (Hg.), Wörterbuch der philosophischen Metaphern. Studienausgabe 2014, unveränderter Nachdruck der erweiterten 3. Auflage 2011. · Einleitung und Beginn von Abschnitt 1: Hören versus Sehen
The specified article passages in the local EPUB were read.
Atlas headings, admission rationales, countertests and examples are editorial applications. No universal cross-cultural validity or exhaustive check of cited originals is claimed.