Chapter 2

CONTEXT AND THE ROLE OF CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS IN

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

OBJECTIVES
In this chapter, we will learn:
- the concept of context
- the role of context in discourse analysis
- models of context

2.1. The concept of context

Context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse, and within
which the discourse is embedded.
Context plays a very important role in the interpretation of discourse.
There is a dialectical relationship between discourse and context. The context
creates the discourse as much as the discourse creates the context.
According to Nunan D. (1993: 8), there are two types of context:
linguistic context (or co-text) and non-linguistic context (or experiential
context).
Context

Linguistic (co-text) Non-linguistic (experiential)

Linguistic context is the language that surrounds or accompanies the

piece of discourse under analysis.
Non-linguistic context/experiential context is the context in which the

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discourse takes place. Non-linguistic contexts include the type of
communicative event (e.g. joke, story, lecture, greeting, conversation): the
topic; the purpose of the event; the setting including location, time of day,
season of year, and physical aspects of the situation (e.g. size of room,
arrangement of furniture), the participant and the relationships between
them; and the background knowledge and assumptions underlying the
communicative event.

2.2. The role of context in discourse

Utterances are not only dependent on the physical context for their
interpretations, they are also closely related to the language surrounding
them (co-text). Apart from a very small number of discourse kinds which
consist of only one word, phrase or sentence, almost all sentences other than
the first one are put in relation to each other. Therefore, the interpretation of
one sentence is hardly achieved without looking back at the previous
sentences or referring to the coming ones. Let us consider the following
examples:
A - Couldn’t you draw in the other room?
B - I’d like to be here by you. Besides I don’t want you to keep looking at
those silly ivy leaves.
A - Tell me as soon as you have finished because I want to see the last
one fall. I’m tired of waiting.
From the text, we know that here refers to in this room, and one refers
to leaf.
Therefore, according to Brown & Yule, the more context there is, in
general, the more secure the interpretation is. (1983:50)

2.3. Models of context

2.3.1. J.R. Firth’s model of context
In J. R Firth’s view, language should be functional and considered in
context. To study language is to study its meaning in context. The context in

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his theory is composed of three elements as follows:
- The relevant features of participants: persons, personalities, the verbal
and non-verbal action of the participants.
- The relevant objects: the surrounding objects and events.
- The effect of the verbal action: what changes were brought about by
what the participants in the situation had to say.

2.3.2. Dell Hymes’ model of context

According to Van H. V (2006), Dell Hymes’ model of context consists of
ten elements as follows:
● Addresser and Addressee: the participants. Addresser refers to the
speaker or writer who produces the utterance, and addressee refers to the
hearer / reader who receives or decodes the utterance.
● Audience: the overhearers or unintended addressees.
● Topic: what is talked about or written about.
● Setting: the time and place of a speech event. For example, a
conversation can take place in a classroom, a garden, a church, and it
can take place at any hour of the day. The setting of a speech event may
have an effect on what is being said and how it is said (also including
posture, gesture, and facial expressions).
● Channel: the way in which a message is conveyed from one person to
another. The two most common channels of communication are speech
and writing. Other examples are the use of drum beats, smoke signals,
or flags.
● Code: A term which is used instead of language, speech variety,
or dialect.
● Message form: tells us about what forms are intended; whether the
piece of language is a sermon, a fairy tales, a love story, a lecture etc.
Event tells us about the nature of the communicative events within

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 which a text may be embedded.
● Key: involves evaluation of the text (the tone, manner, or spirit in
which a speech act is carried out, for example, whether mockingly or
seriously) - i.e whether the text is a good lecture, or an interesting
seminar on language teaching.
● Purpose: refers to the outcome which the participants wish to happen
as a result on the communicative event.

PRACTICE:
1. Analyse the context of the text below, using Dell Hymes’ model of
context. Then translate the text into Vietnamese.

When university students work as domestic help:

VietNamNet Bridge - In order to practice English and have money to
fund their studies, a lot of university students now work as domestic helpers.

Students preferable:
It seems that university students have more advantages than other people
in the competition to obtain the job as domestic help. High income earners
like students because they have knowledge and can work more effectively
than old people. Thanh, an office worker who lives in Thanh Xuan district
noted that students are usually more dynamic and they can easily get
adapted to the new works.
Hanh, a student of the Vietnam Trade Union University, has found a good
job after the Tet holiday. “I need to come to clean the house three times a
week and give private tutoring to a 7th grader. I get 100,000 dong for every
cleaning and 80,000 dong for a private lesson,” she described her job.
Phuong, a student of the University of Culture, also said she feels happy
when finding a job as a domestic help. “I need to earn money to fund my
study,” Phuong said.
Hieu, a third year student of the Transport University, said he has 2-3

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working shifts per day. He has to get up early in the morning to give
deliveries for a family company, for which he gets 100,000 dong for every
two hours. After that, he needs to bring a child to school, for which he gets
80,000 dong a day.
“The work is not too hard, while it can bring money,” Hieu said.
Hanh, a student of the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and
Humanity, said that the demand for students – domestic helps is very high,
especially after Tet. Therefore, a lot of students have been working as
domestic helps and get pay based on the working hours.
“Some of my friends take 2-3 jobs at different houses. It is now the
beginning of the second semester, when the curriculums are not too heavy.
Therefore, it is now the right time to earn money and gather more
experiences for your future life,” Hanh said.

Working as domestic helps for foreigners:

While many students just intend to work as domestic helps only in free
time to earn extra money, many others consider this a serious job.
Nguyen Thi Xuan, a second year student of the University of Labor and
Social Affairs, is one of them. She now works for a foreigner who lives and
works in Hanoi.
Xuan said that she went to many foreign language centers to practice
English, but she could not improve much with her skills. One day,
Xuan heard from her teacher that the best way to learn English is to
communicate with native speakers.
The teacher then introduced a foreigner to Xuan, and she accepted to
work as domestic help for the foreigner for two reasons. First, she can
practice English, and second, she can earn money.
The things that Xuan needs to do everyday are cleaning houses, washing
dishes and ironing clothes. Sometimes, Xuan goes to the markets with the

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owner to help him more understand about Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Pham Xuan Lan from the Finance Academy, said she has
learnt many things, especially the professional way of working, since the
day of working for a foreigner. She accidentally broke a glass and the
foreigner deducted 50,000 dong from her monthly pay, without any
complaint.
Most of the foreigners, who hire Vietnamese students as domestic helps,
are the ones who live and work for a long time in Vietnam. They are open
hearted and have sympathy to the Vietnamese students who try to work
and study.
(http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/education/18539/when-university-
students-work-as-domestic-help.html)
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2. Translate the following extracts into Vietnamese, then make brief

comments on the role of topics in translation.

A prisoner plans his escape A wrestler in a tight corner

Rocky slowly got up from the mat, Rocky slowly got up from the mat,
planning his escape. He hesitated planning his escape. He hesitated
a moment and thought. Things a moment and thought. Things
were not going well. What were not going well. What
bothered him most was being bothered him most was being held,
held, especially since the charge especially since the charge against
against him had been weak. He him had been weak. He
considered his present situation. considered his present situation.
The lock that held him was strong, The lock that held him was strong,
but he thought he could break it. but he thought he could break it.

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2.3.3. Halliday’s model of context

In Van H. V (2006), Halliday’s model of context has the following
factors:
● The field of discourse refers to what is happening, including what is
being talked about.
● The tenor of discourse: refers to the participants who are taking part
in the exchange of meaning, who they are and what kind of relationship
then have to one another.
● The mode of discourse: refers to what part the language is playing in
this particular situation, for example, in what way the language is
organized to convey the meaning, and what channel is used - written or
spoken or a combination of the two.
Below are some samples of situational description based on Halliday’s
model of contexts.

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SITUATIONAL DESCRIPTION 1:
A foreign language lesson in a secondary school
Field: Language study, a defined area of information about the foreign
language, e.g. the use of tenses. The teacher imparting, students acquiring
knowledge about tenses and their use.
Tenor: Participants: teacher - students. Fixed role relationships defined
by the educational institution. Teacher in higher role. Temporary role
relationships between students, depending on personality.
Mode: Language used for instruction and discussion channels: spoken
and written i.e. visual presentation on blackboard etc.

SITUATIONAL DESCRIPTION 2:
(quoted from Van H. V. 2006: 42)
The following text is a little passage from a broadcast talk that was given
in England some years ago by a distinguished churchman concerned with
the status of Christianity in the modern world.
The Christian should therefore take atheism seriously, not only that he
may be able to answer it, but so that he himself may still be able to be a
believer in the mid-twentieth century. With this in mind, I would ask you to
expose yourself to the three thrusts of modern atheism - each is present in
varying degree in any representative type - so much as three motives which
have impelled men, particularly over the past hundred years, to question the
God of their upbringing and ours. They may be represented by three
summary statements:
God is intellectually superfluous.
God is emotionally dispensable.
God is morally intolerable.
Field: Maintenance of institutionalised system of beliefs; religion
(Christianity), and the members’ attitudes towards it; semi-technical.

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 Tenor: Authority (in both senses, i.e. person holding authority, and
specialist) to the audience; audience unseen and unknown (like readership),
but relationship institutionalised) (pastor to flock).
Mode: Written to be read aloud; public act (mass media: radio);
monologue; Lecture; persuasive, with rational argument.

PRACTICE:
Read the following text, analyse the context using Halliday’s model, and
then translate the text into Vietnamese.
India woman leaves home for lack of toilet.
A newlywed woman in a village in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh
has won her struggle to have a toilet at her husband's home.
Anita Narre left husband Shivram's home two days after her marriage in
May last year because the house had no toilet.
She returned eight days later after Shivram, a daily wage worker, built
one with savings and aid from villagers.
An NGO announced a $10,000 reward for Mrs Narre for her "brave"
decision and forcing her husband to build a toilet.
More than half-a-billion Indians still lack access to basic sanitation.
The problem is acute in rural India and it is the women who suffer most.
Shivram said he was not able to build a toilet at home because of lack of
money.
He admitted that his wife returned home only after he constructed one
with his savings and "some support from the village council".
"It is not nice for women to go outside to defecate. That's why every
home should have a toilet. Those who don't should make sure there is one,"
Mrs Narre told the BBC.
Many people in India do not have access to flush toilets or other latrines.
But under new local laws in states including Chhattisgarh, people's

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representatives are obliged to construct a flush toilet in their own home
within a year of being elected. Those who fail to do so face dismissal.
The law making toilets mandatory has been introduced in several states
as part of the "sanitation for all" drive by the Indian government.
The programme aims to eradicate the practice of open defecation, which
is common in rural and poor urban areas of India.
Special funds are made available for people to construct toilets to
promote hygiene and eradicate the practice of faeces collection - or
scavenging - which is mainly carried out by low-caste people.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17022847)
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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. Why does the context create the discourse as much as the discourse
creates the context?
2. Why is the interpretation of a discourse dependent upon both linguistic
and non-linguistic context?

REQUIRED READINGS:
English:
1. Brown G. & Yule G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press,.
2. Nunan D. (1993). Introducing Discourse Analysis. Penguin English.
3. Van H. V. (2006). Introducing Discourse Analysis. Hanoi:
Education Publisher.
Vietnamese:
4. Hồ Ngọc Trung (2012). Phép thế trong tiếng Anh (trong sự liên hệ
với tiếng Việt). Nxb. Khoa học Xã hội.

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