Abstract
Context is the most frequently studied theme in pragmatics. This paper reviews some popular definitions of context, and points out that these definitions are commonsense conceptions. Beginning with verbal context, present situation and background knowledge, this paper gradually concludes that the context is essentially propositional knowledge, which is shared by both communicators and related with the ongoing object utterance to be comprehended. On the other hand, the sharedness of context knowledge is the result of the speaker’s deduction. Finally, this paper generalizes the three modes through which context affects the comprehending of object utterance. In terms of these modes, it sets up the rigorous and manipulable scientific concept of context.
| Keywords: | cognition context; knowledge proposition of both communicators; comprehending of object utterance |
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