A Short Message Service (SMS) enables a sender to send an asynchronous short text message from his source device to one or more receiving devices specified by the sender that represent one or more recipients. SMS+4D embeds, and allows the recipient to elicit contextual and explanatory information concerning the meaning of the short text message from the SMS, thus creating `sideband` capability for text messages analogous to the visual and aural cues from accompanying facial and body expressiveness and the tone, timbre, pitch, and timing of a spoken message. SMS+4D may also learn, through embedded formal analysis and pattern comprehension, to associate specific contextual information to support the sender's original meaning, thereby clarifying surficially indefinite text words, phrases, or structures.