The role of context in the interpretation of Southern Sotho discourse
Moeketsi, Rosemary Henrietta
Utterances normally mean more than they actually say on the
surface, and this extra information is either contained in
or inferrable from the context in which such utterances are
made. The context of utterances is in the first place
linguistic. This means that the complete and accurate
interpretation of the utterance depends on what has already
been said and/or what has still to be said. This linguistic
context can either be explicit, as in REFERENCE and DEIXIS
or implicit as in PRESUPPOSITION and IMPLICATURE, where
its meaning has to be inferred. In the second p 1 ace, the context of utterance is
situational, meaning that utterances are made and should
thus be interpreted in their situations of utterance. Even
the linguistic context therefore occurs within the
situational context. Situational context is normally the
extralinguistic environment in which an utterance is made
and also/or the social and cultural context of utterance.
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