What might be called the “legal status” of communication is nicely developed by Goffman: “Tact in regard to face-work often relies for its operation on a tacit agreement to do business through the language of hint—the language of innuendo, ambiguities, well placed pauses, carefully worded jokes, and so on. The rule regarding this unofficial kind of communication is that the sender ought not to act as if he had officially conveyed the message he has hinted at, while the recipients have the right and the obligation to act as if they have not officially received the message contained in the hint. Hinted communication, then, is deniable communication.”

DEFINE: Goffman defines hinted communication as a distinct unofficial mode of exchange governed by a tacit rule of deniability.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 781