Context and Its Role in Shaping Signification, Constructing Meaning, and Its Interpretation: An Analytical Approach in the Light of Arabic Rhetoric and Pragmatic Linguistics

Abstract

Context is the cornerstone of pragmatic studies and one of its fundamental pillars. It is also an indispensable mechanism in the analysis of discourse and the interpretation of various texts because discourse that is capable of being understood and interpreted is discourse that can be situated within its context, in the previously specified sense. Very often, the recipient is confronted with a discourse that is extremely simple in terms of its language, yet it may contain indicators (such as pronouns or adverbials) that render it ambiguous and incomprehensible without an understanding of its context. Consequently, context plays an effective role in the communicative function of discourse and, fundamentally, in its coherence. Discourse could not possess meaning without familiarity with its context. In other words, all speech events that occur within a given context are, in reality, dependent upon the temporal and spatial circumstances in which they arose.