 The dependence of the effect of legal language on context is an instance of a general feature of communication, which some philosophers of language have approached by distinguishing semantics from pragmatics. The distinction is, roughly, between the meaning of a word or phrase or other linguistic expression, and the effect that is to be ascribed to the use of the expression in a particular way, by a particular user of the language, in a particular context. The pragmatics of legal language is a vast field, because the term ‘pragmatics’ could be used as a heading for much of what modern legal scholars and theorists have described as grounds for interpretation. In fact, ‘pragmatics’ could also be used as a heading for much that they have described as the theory of interpretation – since ‘pragmatics’ is a term not only for effects of communication, but also for the study of those effects.  For example, the work of the judges in Garner v Burr can be described as an exercise in pragmatic inference. The technical sound of the word ‘pragmatics’ may suggest that it is a term for the theoretical study of its object; in fact, the field of study is what might be inferred from the fact that someone said what they said in the context in which they said it. No object of study is less apt for theorising.