Chapter 8  Meaning and Context 意义和语境

Context in its traditional sense refers to the lexical items that precede or follow a given word. Modern linguists have broadened its scope to include both linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts.

Two types of context

Linguistic context：It refers to the words,clauses,sentences in which a word appears. It may cover a paragraph,a whole chapter and even the entire book.

1) Lexical context：It refers to the word that occurs together with the word in question.

2) Grammatical context：It refers the situation when the meaning of a word may be influenced by the structure in which it occurs.

Extra-linguistic context：In a broad sense,it includes the physical situaion as well.it embraces the people, time, place, and even the whole cultural background.

The role of context语境的作用

Elimination of ambiguity消除歧义

1）Ambiguity due to polysemy or homonymy.

2）Grammatical structure can also lead to ambiguity

Indication of referents限定所指

Provision of clues for inferring word meaning 提供线索以猜测词义