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Pragmaticsandlearningaforeignlanguage
1.3.Contextofsituation
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Ingeneral,providingafullanalysisofmeaningassituatedinsomecon-
text10isadauntingtask.Theredoesnotexistapragmaticsresearchreport
thatcouldclaimtohaveexhaustedorscrutinizedtheimpactofallcontextual
factorsonaparticularutterance.Thesamediffcultyappliestodefningcon-
textbecauseitisdynamicandproactiveincharacter.Despitetheconsiderable
massofelementswhichmaydeterminethemeaningofutterances,itmustbe
possibletoidentifytherelevantfeaturesornormswhichwouldbetypicalof
particularsituations.Thus,Cap(2010:197)advancesthatcontextisHnotori-
ouslyhardtodefne”butinsimpletermsthisiswhereHIasentence’becomes
anIutterance’”.
Contextisaconstellation,orHasuitableschematicconstruct”(Firth1957:
182),ofelementswhichplayaroleinlanguageproductionandalsothose
whichmustbeinvokedtoHdeterminewhatanambiguoussentencemeans”,
sothatitbecomesintelligible(Mey2002:13).Contextbringssuchfactors
intorelationandtheirconstellationiscontinuallychangingasaparticu-
larinteractionprogresses,e.g.,duetotheincreasingoverlapoftheshared
knowledgebetweentheinterlocutors.Mostimportantly,H[t]heindividual
issituatedinasocialcontext,whichmeansthatsheorheisempowered,as
wellaslimited,bytheconditionsofhisorherlife.Theideaofthepersonas
aIfree’agent,engaginginallsortsofIfree’enterpriseanddecidingIfreely’
onmeansandends-thatideawasneveranythingbutfction”(May2002:
214).Elementswhichconstitutecontextcanbeparticularizedasfollows,
takingintoaccountFirth’s(1957:182-183)originalmodelasexpandedon
thebasisofCap(2010:197-198):
1.Therelevantfeaturesofparticipants:persons,personalities.
3.Theverbalactionofparticipants,co-text,i.e.,thelinguisticelements
thatHhaveprecededitorareexpectedtofollowit,inagivendiscourse
situation”(Cap2010:197);
4.Thenon-verbalactionoftheparticipants;
5.Affectiveportraitsoftheconversationpartners(e.g.,attitudes,emo-
tionsandfeelingsbetweenthespeakerandthehearer);
6.Hacombined(orevencommon)prehistoryofthespeaker’sandthe
hearer’s(linguistic)experience”(Cap2010:197);
7.Therelevantobjectsoftheextralinguisticsettings;
8.Theeffectoftheverbalactionl
10Mey(2004)prefersthetermsituationtodenoteit.Thesetwotermsaregoingtobeused
interchangeablyinthiswork.