The listener can comprehend the words and sentences because they are drawn from the language's lexicon and follow its grammatical rules, but the listener can also recognize the intentions behind the words by virtue of being in the same situation and sharing a common human nature with the speaker.
Interpretation is built upon understanding and has a grammatical, as well as a psychological moment.
The psychological thrust is more naive and linear. In it, the interpreter reconstructs and explicates the subject's motives and implicit assumptions. Thus Schleiermacher claimed that a successful interpreter could understand the author as well, as or even better than, the author understood himself because the interpretation highlights hidden motives and strategies. Dilthey initially followed Schleiermacher in identifying understanding as empathy guaranteed by the notion of a common human nature. Although he recognized that the outlook and values of people varied over different historical periods and cultures, Dilthey argued that, because historians themselves thought and acted, they could relive and understand what people in the past were trying to express and accomplish in their writings, speeches, actions and art.