Dueling contexts: A dynamic model of meaning

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of context in meaning construction. My starting point is the assumption that context is a dynamic construct that appears in different formats in language use both as a repository and/or trigger of knowledge. Consequently, context has both a selective and a constitutive role. Unlike several current theories of meaning (e.g. Barsalou, 1993; Coulson, 2000; Croft, 2000; Evans, 2006) claiming that meaning construction is mostly dependent on situational context, I will argue that meaning values of words encoding prior contexts of experience play as important a role in meaning construction as situational context. These two sides of world knowledge (encoded and current) exist dialectically and relationally. Actual situation context is viewed through prior context, and their encounter creates a third space. According to this approach meaning is the result of the interplay of prior experience and current experience, which are both socio-cultural in nature. Prior experience is encapsulated in the meaning values of lexical items that make up the utterances used by the interlocutors, and current experience is represented in the actual situation context in which communication takes place, and which is interpreted (often differently) by the interlocutors. Meaning formally expressed in the linguistic interactional context is created on-the-spot, and is the result of the interaction and mutual influence of the private contexts represented in the language of the interlocutors and the actual situational context interpreted by the interlocutors. In speech communication people attempt to fit their language to a situational context that their language, in turn, helped to create in the first place. This reciprocity means that language both creates context and is created by it (cf. Goodwin and Duranti, 1992; Gee, 1999). The dynamic model of meaning (DMM) is put forward as an attempt to give equal importance to message and actual situational context in meaning construction as described above, and blend the external and internal approaches to context. The model considers the communicative process as a structured whole, as something viewed from different perspectives. It applies Sciabarra's understanding of dialectics to context according to which dialectics is “the ‘art of context-keeping,’ because it counsels us to grasp the full context of any object through techniques of abstraction and integration. By examining an object from different vantage points and on different levels of generality, we achieve a more comprehensive grasp of its antecedent conditions, interrelationships, and tendencies ( Sciabarra, 2002:381)”. The paper starts with a brief introduction to the cognitive approach followed by a discussion of different ways of understanding context. Then the DMM is presented, and it is demonstrated how the model can be used to explain the dialectics of context, word meaning, and utterance meaning. The paper ends with a section that discusses how the application of the DMM may affect our understanding of some major issues in pragmatics.