Context is central to pragmatics, and the fields of context that could be imagined are

numerous. However, for the purpose of this course, we will limit our discussion of context
to the following fields: 1)Linguistic, 2)Physical, 3)Social, and 4 )Empirical.

1) Linguistic Context – what has been said so far in the conversation or text. The ‘history’ of
the conversation or text. *Co-text is central to and often used interchangeably with
Linguistic Context.
• e.g.1 - The system bus is a pathway. It is composed of cables and connectors
used to carry data between a computer microprocessor and the main memory.

In this linguistic presentation of the word bus, by looking at its linguistic context (co-
text) we can understand that it is related to computer hardware and not to a mass
transit vehicle used in public transportation.

• e.g.2 – After an exam in French VI class, Student1 sarcastically says to Student2,

“Wow, that exam was fun.”

In this example, the use of sarcasm presents the linguistic context to clearly imply
that Student1 did not actually believe the exam was fun.

2) Physical Context – The environment, the time, and the place. This encompasses what is
physically present around the speakers/hearers at the time of communication. What objects
are visible, where the communication is taking place, what is going on around, what actions
are occurring, etc.
• e.g.1 - Student1 says to student2, “Can you please pass me that bright colored
backpack over there.” Student1 points to and looks at the backpack that she is
referring to.

In this example we can see that the physical gestures of pointing and looking
provided the physical context necessary for the correct interpretation.

• e.g.2 - “Be here at 1 p.m.”

In this example, the word here provides physical context specifically referring to the
place the speaker is located at the moment of the utterance. And, the time 1 p.m.
provides physical context related to the time.

3) Social Context – The social relationship of the people involved in the communication.
Pertains to social roles, social status, gender, age, cultural norms, etc.

e.g.1 – A student greets the Decano, “Buenas tardes Profesor William. ¿Cómo está
usted?”

When students are speaking in this social context to the Decano of the faculty, they
speak to him using formal language, the Usted form, not informal language, the Tú
or Vos form.
 e.g.2 – When a professor is writing another an administrator at a university in
Colombia, it is common for the email to begin, “Buenos tardes, estimado nombre.
Espero que se encuentre bien.”

This is a culturally appropriate greeting for the social context of this situation.

4) Empirical Context – In this course we use empirical context to refer to the large volume of
various corpora that include millions of language samples that are now readily available for
linguistic and pragmatic research. These corpora are both of the written and the spoken
language.

e.g.1 – Here is an example of text samples that include the words/collocations,

fathom, end up, naked eye, chair, and swell in linguistic context →
https://corpus.byu.edu/concordances.asp