Skip to main content
Taylor & Francis Group Logo
    Advanced Search

    Click here to search products using title name,author name and keywords.

    • Login
    • Hi, User  
      • Your Account
      • Logout
      Advanced Search

      Click here to search products using title name,author name and keywords.

      Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

      Chapter

      THE ELUSIVE CONTEXT
      loading

      Chapter

      THE ELUSIVE CONTEXT

      DOI link for THE ELUSIVE CONTEXT

      THE ELUSIVE CONTEXT book

      THE ELUSIVE CONTEXT

      DOI link for THE ELUSIVE CONTEXT

      THE ELUSIVE CONTEXT book

      ByManfredo Massironi, Translated by N Bruno
      BookThe Psychology of Graphic Images

      Click here to navigate to parent product.

      Edition 1st Edition
      First Published 2001
      Imprint Psychology Press
      Pages 17
      eBook ISBN 9781410601896
      Share
      Share

      ABSTRACT

      Most people appreciate importance of context when they try to understand how verbal communication can be possible. Verbal context is particularly important when meaning relies on establishing relationships between pieces of discourse. After closer scrutiny, however, it becomes apparent that the putative role of context, far from providing an explanation of verbal communication, actually creates a problem. Thus, language is an excellent way to start our discussion of context. Language, of course, can be either written text or spoken discourse. For simplicity, I will focus here on the first case. Text acquires meaning through well-established rules, which in turn are based on the workings of faster, automatic, lower level perceptual processes. The notion of context derives from the apparent fact that, in the world as well as in our experience, things usually work together. It is extremely rare that objects or events stand alone. For this to happen, a

      person must perform a deliberate cognitive operation to isolate the object from its surroundings. This is similar to what happens when we draw a lone tree, person, or word on a blank sheet of paper. In this case, the meaning of the object or word encompasses a much larger set of possible meanings; it is much more ambiguous than a situation in which the object is part of a scene or the word is part of discourse. In a dictionary, because each word is presented without a context, one finds not a single meaning, but a list of many (possibly all) meanings that the word can take. When instead a word is part of a complete sentence, the number of its possible meanings shrinks, usually to one possible meaning. An interaction occurs between the target word and the other words in the sentence. This interaction has the effect of restricting the semantic area of the target word. The connection between the words, as they form a meaningful sentence, allows for only a few of the target’s meanings to surface. Thus, if I say “the lawyer sued the board,” few people would think that legal action was taken against a piece of wood, even though the word could have that meaning.

      T&F logoTaylor & Francis Group logo
      • Policies
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms & Conditions
        • Cookie Policy
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms & Conditions
        • Cookie Policy
      • Journals
        • Taylor & Francis Online
        • CogentOA
        • Taylor & Francis Online
        • CogentOA
      • Corporate
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
      • Help & Contact
        • Students/Researchers
        • Librarians/Institutions
        • Students/Researchers
        • Librarians/Institutions
      • Connect with us

      Connect with us

      Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067
      5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2022 Informa UK Limited