context (n.)

A general term used in LINGUISTICS and PHONETICS to refer to specific parts of an UTTERANCE (or TEXT) near or adjacent to a UNIT which is the focus of attention. The occurrence of a unit (e.g. a sound, WORD) is partly or wholly determined by its context, which is specified in terms of the unit’s relations, i.e. the other features with which it combines as a sequence. The everyday sense of the term is related to this, as when one ‘puts a word in context’ (contextualizes), in order to clarify the MEANING intended, as in dictionary entries. Providing a context in this way is referred to as contextualization. Words, it is suggested, have meaning only when seen in context.

Variants of sound, GRAMMAR, etc., which are dependent on context for their occurrence are sometimes called contextual variants (or ‘conditioned variants’); an example is the allophone. An analysis in these terms is sometimes called a contextual analysis. Some scholars use the term co-text for context in sense, reserving the latter term for sense below.

The specification of contexts is a particular characteristic of the formulation of rules in GENERATIVE linguistics, where forms can be classified in terms of whether they occur only within a specific FORMAL context (context-sensitive/ -restricted/-dependent rules) or are independent of context (context-free rules). A context-free grammar is one in which all the rules apply regardless of context, i.e. they would be all of the type ‘Rewrite X as Y’, no further conditions being specified. A context-sensitive grammar contains some rules of the type A ⇒ B /C–D, where the forward slash means ‘in the context of’, and the horizontal line indicates the place in the structure where A (a single non-terminal symbol) is rewritten as B (a non-empty string of symbols) – in this case, between C and D (any strings of symbols). In some GENERATIVE MODELS, contextual features refer to one of the types of (BINARY) FEATURES which are contained in a LEXICAL entry (the others being INHERENT and RULE features); such features provide information as to where in a DEEP-STRUCTURE REPRESENTATION a lexical item can occur. Three types of contextual features are recognized: CATEGORY features, STRICT SUB-CATEGORIZATION features and SELECTIONAL features.

A term referring to the features of the non-linguistic world in relation to which linguistic units are systematically used. The term ‘situation’ is also used in this sense, as in the compound term situational context. In its broadest sense, situational context includes the TOTAL non-linguistic background to a text or utterance, including the immediate situation in which it is used, and the awareness by speaker and hearer of what has been said earlier and of any relevant external beliefs or PRESUPPOSITIONS. Others restrict the term to what is immediately observable in the co-occurring situation. Further distinctions are usually made in SEMANTICS and STYLISTICS, distinguishing, for example, REFERENTIAL and EMOTIVE meaning from contextual meaning, i.e. information signalled about the kind of use a linguistic unit has in its social context, e.g. whether it has a ‘restricted’ use (as in social pleasantries, or religious settings), or how it relates to such factors as age, sex or class of the speakers.

Other related senses may be found. For example, the general term context of utterance is sometimes used to refer to all the factors which systematically determine the FORM, MEANING or appropriateness of UTTERANCES. Context is also used in HALLIDAYAN linguistics, but in a restricted sense, as the name of an INTER-LEVEL of language organization which relates linguistic form to extralinguistic SITUATION – it is thus equivalent to SEMANTICS.