Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I've noticed that if I ask cattitude to repeat something, he will do so word-for-word, whereas if I'm asked "What?" I tend to assume that the problem was with the syntax or word choice, rather than on the auditory level, and will rephrase for attempted clarity. That's a good technique when I've gotten tangled in baroque sentence structures--there are things that work in writing but can be hard to follow when spoken--or left out pronoun references or other assumptions. It's counterproductive when the problem is that only some of the words have been heard. If you notice me doing this (not that we get to spend enough time together offline), please remind me that when you say "What?" you mean "Please repeat those words" rather than "Please rephrase that."

[This started as part of a response to tamiam, in a comment thread on elisem's journal. I'm repeating it here because other hearing-impaired people who talk to me may find the information useful, and maybe some people, whether or not they fit in that category, may find it interesting. And as a reminder to myself.]