Kevin of Harlow, from reading the part of your posting 'You know, the way in an argument, instead of responding to what the other peron has said, you say something like "This is very important to you, isn't it?" and so forth, that is "meta-communication". (Really pisses me off when it happens to me...)'

I try to give some slack when that happens in a discussion.
Feelings will be involved in a discussion and maybe it is difficult for the other person to verbalize what they are feeling and it is difficult for me to know how they are feeling too.
So I will say, "I guess this is really important to you" and give respect to those feelings not verbalized into thoughts and take them into consideration.
Maybe I misunderstood what you meant on that posting, but that is how I took it.

Bonnie