On Meaning Processing Functions Of Context

The present thesis starts from the framework concerned with analysis of hierarchical and dynamic properties of context and goes on to brief sketches with regard to how meaning is investigated in semantics on one hand and in pragmatics on the other hand, followed by a brief presentation of Halliday's theory concerned with relationship between context and meaning for one thing and relationship between meaning and lexico-grammar for another. Then efforts are made to combine the four frameworks into one by employing as the basis the framework of context consisting of linguistic context, context of situation and context of culture and by applying Halliday's framework to context of situation exclusively. In the course of analysis, the thesis has applied theory of context of situation to pragmatic investigations and regarded semantic investigation as basis for other meaning investigations. In this way, the thesis succeeds in finding a way out of the embarrassment of facing four different theoretic frameworks that seem to contradict one another. In the last chapter, the paper presents investigations on how linguistic context, context of situation and context of culture function separately as meaning processors and how they join to function as such.So far in the field of linguistics, the investigations of the hierarchical and dynamic properties of context are basically confined to those as related to context of situation or in abstraction. No mention has been made of whether the analysis of context as a hierarchy can be applied to linguistic context. The thesis holds that linguistic context is also hierarchical in terms of embedding or recursion. The three categories of context join their forces to function as meaning processor. The thesis proposes that meaning processing function of linguistic context serves as the basis for meaning processing function of context of situation to work, and meaning processingfunction of context of situation serves as the basis for meaning processing function of context of culture to operate. The most deeply embedded context serves as the basis for the second most deeply embedded context. The most deeply embedded linguistic context serves as the most basic starting point in the investigation of meaning.Owing to the complication of the issue at hand, the thesis does not attempt to exhaust the investigation in this respect. However, it is wished that the thesis could open a new chapter for the investigation along the line.