The Dynamics Of Context In Verbal Communication

Context is a common concern not only in linguistics, sociolinguistics, but also in pragmatics. For a long time, researchers have initiated studies from different perspectives out of various interests. This essay aims at studying the dynamics of context in verbal communication and exploring its application on a pragmatic point. Verbal communication is a highly context-dependent dynamic interactive process. The traditional study of context was static and could not explain the dynamic process. Therefore, in this paper, I unfold a dynamic approach to the study of context, which regards context as the product of a generation process during which participants can actively manipulate and choose proper context for production and interpretation on the basis of mutual manifestness.The present paper is composed of six chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction to the essay. First it gives a brief description of verbal communication. Then comes the concept of context. Different scholars hold different opinions to context. Malinowski, Firth and Halliday observed context on a static point. Sperber&Wilson critically inherited and developed the notion of the cognitive context in their Relevance Theory. Pragmatist Verschueren investigated context from the pragmatic perspective and focused on the dynamics. Due to the deficiencies of static context, I point out the necessity of dynamic study on context in verbal communication.Chapter Two gives a survey of the theoretical framework of our concern in the paper. Theory of Adaptation and Relevance Theory prove to be two important theoretical foundations to support the dynamic study of context.Chapter Three and Chapter Four make a thorough analysis on dynamics of context. According to Verschueren's classification of context, Chapter Three elaborates ingredients of dynamic context comprehensively, the mental world in particular. On the basis of Chapter Three, Chapter Four explores the dynamic properties of context in verbal communication. First, four methods are adopted by the utterer to manipulate context with some examples, which demonstrate that languageusers can consciously manipulate context by talking or acting in a proper way to produce a favorable context in order to obtain the communicative goals. Second, only the interpreter realizes the dynamic properties of context can he interpret meaning effectively.In Chapter Five, I discuss how to develop college students' pragmatic abilities by means of conclusions drawn from Chapter Four. It can be unfolded from aspects of production and interpretation. In order to be pragmatically competent, on one hand, one should do well in manipulating and producing a favorable context to achieve his communicative goals. On the other hand, he should be capable of choosing a proper context to interpret meaning effectively.Chapter Six makes a conclusion of the whole essay. Meanwhile, it points out the application of dynamics of context in a wider scope of English teaching and learning.