X has a plan involving my actually passing the salt. My passing the salt is a method for causing X to have the salt. X's goal is to have the salt 9. This is a request to pass the salt. You want to pass the salt.
Understanding proceeds via literal meaning or sense- semantics.
It is not an independent parallel process. However, there are a number of ways in which they might be thought less than satisfactory. First, it is always unclear whether certain components of the theory are mere descrip- tions of what happens, or principles of the language understanding process itself. One example is the maxims themselves. But that isnt necessarily the way it works.