The Role of Context in
Discourse Studies
Definition of context
Types of context
The role of context in discourse studies
Overview:
Both pragmatics and discourse analysis study the meaning of words in context,
analyzing the parts of meaning that can be explained by knowledge of the physical
and social world and the psychological factors influencing communication, as well
as the knowledge of the time and place in which the words are uttered or written
(Stilwell Peccei 1999; Yule 1996).
Both approaches focus on the meaning of words in interaction and how
interlocutors communicate more information than the words they use: The speaker
constructs the linguistic message and intends or implies a meaning and the learner
interprets the message and infers the meaning (Brown & Yule 1983; Thomas
1995).
Definitions of Context:
Context in discourse studies is viewed as one of the key parameters upon which the analyst of discourse
bases his interpretation of either spoken or written language to provide an optimal attempt, which mirrors
the context of discourse.
Van Dijk (1977) describes context as being basically a ‘dynamic’ process. It is not static. In fact, different
factors are considered as havinf a significant influence on context. These include: the setting, the
participants, and the topic of a text.
From another perspective, Cook (1989), defines the notion of context as the knowledge of the world. He
states that our language (text or talk) and our understanding of discourse is determined by other factors,
which surpass the sentence facets, such as the non-linguistic factors, situation, and the cultural and social
relationships with the participants. Consequently, the interpretation of discourse is tightly related to the
different factors found in the world.
Widdowson (2007) focuses on the idea of shared knowledge between the interlocutors. He asserts that
context is present when two interlocutors engaged in a conversation are aware of the mutual commonalities
Elements of Context:
Broadly speaking, some elemets of context are internal; that is, they are related to the
language patterns inside the text. Conversely, some componenets are external and
include a number of text-external features influencing the interpretation of discourse.
Linguistic choices generally indicate people’s awareness of the influence of one or
more of the following components (Holmes, 2013: p. 9):
1. The participants (speaker and listener)
2. The setting or the social context of the ineraction
3. The topic (what is being talked about)
4. The function (why interaction is taking place)
Hymes (1972) categorizes the speech situations in terms of eight constituents which
we may be summarized in the following:
• Form and content of text
• Setting (time and place)
• Participants (adresser and addressee)
• Ends (intentions and effects of speech)
• Key (non-verbal communication or body language such as facial expressions)
• Medium (oral interviews, chat-rooms, phone conversation…etc).
• Genre (the style or category of language)
• Interactional norms (all the socio-cultural conventions that govern human oral and
written communication.
Illustration
Consider the following two situations:
1. The husband has just finished supper and wanted to watch TV, leaving his wife alone
to clear the table and wash dishes).
Wife: Shouldn’t you help me do some housework?
Husband: I have worked for nine hours.
2. The boss of a restaurant gives two dollars to a temporary worker who does washing
for him.
Boss: Here is your pay, boy.
Worker: I have worked for nine hours.
Types of Context:
Linguistic context (co-text)
Situational context
Cultural context
Linguistic context or the co-text:
“Linguistic context refers to the context within the discourse, that is, the relationship between the words,
phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs” which precede or follow a given discourse (Song, 2010, p. 876). It
is defined in terms of the linguistic surrounding in discourse
Deixis: In a language event, the participants must know where they are in space and time, and these features
relate directly to the deictic context. There are three types of deixis: Place, time and person.
Example: Previously, I flew over there for a quick visit.
As the linguistic context is missing, it is not possible to completely understand the sentence.
Substitution: Substitution holds the text together and avoids repetition.
Example: Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes, all the same
There is a green one and a pink one
(Reynolds, 1963)
Ellipsis: Just like substitution, ellipsis avoids repetition and depends on the hearer
or reader’s being able to retrieve the missing words from the surrounding co-text.
Example: “He is afraid of you ”, Yossarian said. “He’s afraid you’re going to die of
pneumonia”. “He’d better be afraid”, Chief White Halfoat said. A deep low laugh
rumbled through his massive chest. “I will, too the first chance I get. You just wait and
see”.
Situational context:
Situational context refers to “the environment, time and place in which the discourse occurs, and
also the relationship between the participants” (Song, 2010: p. 877). In fact, moving from one
context to another requires an adaptation of language, or the use of another type of communication
(adapting the level of formality for instance). As a result, linguistic choices are influenced by the
situational context.
Cultural context:
The notion of culture is an umbrella term which incorporates a set of variables including:
traditions, social norms, values, religion, ethnicity, gender, social class, social status…etc. These
social and cultural variables have a significant impact on the way people produce and undertand
language. While convergence facilitates interaction between people; divergence makes
communication a difficult task to be fulfilled.
The Role of Context in Discourse Analysis:
1. Eliminationg ambiguity:
Ambiguity refers to a word, phrase, sentence or group of sentences with more than one
possible interpretation or meaning. Tere are two types of ambiguities: lexical ambiguity and
structural ambiguity (Song, 2010: p. 877).
Lexical ambiguity it is mostly caused by homonymy. For example the words: write,
right, rite, and wright are all pronounced in the same way but their meanings differ. If they are
provided out of context; it would be impossible to determine their exact meaning.
Structural ambiguity it arises from the grammatical analysis of the sentence. For
example, in the sentence, young men and women can be analyzed either as young /men and
women/ (both of them are young) or /young men/ and women (only men are young) (Song,
2010, p. 877)
Indicating referents:
Context plays a crucial role in the interpretation of words like: He, can, should, do, then,
there when these are used as referring expressions that refer to persons, verbs, adverbial
expressions of time or place.
For example:
Do you think he will?
I don’t know. He might.
I suppose he ought to, but perhaps he feels he can’t (Zhang, 2000: p. 245)
Detecting conversational implicature:
The term conversational implicature is used by Grice to account for what a speaker can imply,
suggest, or mean, as dintinct from what the speaker literally says and it is deduced on the basis
of the conversational meaning of words together with the context, under the guidance of the
cooperative principle and its four maxims: quantity, quality, relation and manner) (Song, 2010,
p. 878).
Grice (1970) also found that when people communicate with each other, they do not always
adhere to the four maxims. The violation of a maxim may result in the speaker conveying, in
addition to the literal meaning of his utterance, an additional meaning, which is conversational
implicature (ibid).
Conclusion:
Context is of paramount importance in discourse analysis. In order to understand
individual’s production, understanding and negociation of meaning, context
should be carefully considered.
Context is a general term which includes a set of variables that are all important
and worth considering in the interpretation of any piece of discourse.
There are different types of context that should all be analyzed when analyzing
discourse.
Considering the different types of context in discourse analysis will help us
achive a better understanding and more appropriate interpretation of the intended
meanings.
