Context of communication

Translations

contesto della comunicazione | contexte de la communication | Kommunikationssituation

Article

In a functionalist approach to general linguistics, context encompasses all non-language-internal elements that characterize a situation in which an act of communication takes place.

While this definition may appear rather clear and easy to grasp, the exact details of what constitutes the context of a communication act may vary quite a lot depending on the different schools. Shared knowledge within a community, a geographical and even physical location, the [diastratic variation | diastratic] features of the speakers involved, pragmatic habits and rules affeting them, all are examples of factors to be taken into consideration.

For a discussion on the complexity of the issue, see the paper by Rigotti and Rocci (2006).

Example

No proper examples can be provided for ancient corpus languages attested mostly in archive-texts, for obvious reasons. See however also under the closely related concept of variation.

References

E. Rigotti and A. Rocci (2006). TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION CONTEXT. FOUNDATIONS OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO COMMUNICATION. Science of Communication 6/2, pp. 155-180.