Daily Vocabulary for Better Conversation

Look up Context in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

For a macro package for the TeX typesetting system, see ConTeXt.

For a Windows text editor, see ConTEXT.

The context of an event includes the circumstances and conditions which surround it; the context of a word, sentence, or longer utterance or text includes the words that surround it.

Within specific academic disciplines, it has the following meanings:

• In archaeology, the context (physical location) of a discovery can be of major significance. See stratification. More precisely, an archaeological context is an event in time which has been preserved in the archaeological record. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, whilst the material filling it will be another. Multiple fills, seen as layers in archaeological section would mean multiple contexts. Structural features, natural deposits and inhumations are also contexts. By separating a site into these basic, discrete units, archaeologists are able to create a chronology for activity on a site and describe and interpret it.
• In mycology, the context, also called flesh, is the mass of non-hymenial tissue that composes the mass of a fungal fruiting body. When viewed microscopically, it is referred to as the trama.
• In communications and linguistics, context is the meaning of a message (such as a sentence), its relationship to other parts of the message (such as a book), the environment in which the communication occurred, and any perceptions which may be associated with the communication. Thus, context is a frame through which one views a message.
• In computer science, context is the circumstances under which a device is being used, e.g. the current occupation of the user. (see also context awareness, context switch).
• In Artificial Intelligence, context is very much related to its properties in communications, linguistics and philosophy. Research is being performed about how these aspects can be modelled in computer systems (e.g. logic-based) for use in automated reasoning.
• In Biblical Studies, context indicates the harmonious relationship of the scripture verse(s) or potion of text under study following after the rule of the text within the context. It should abide by a scriptural sense of bearing a close relationship with the immediate passage when trying to determine the meaning of the scriptures. The context of scriptures also should follows the aim and purpose as observed by the original writer with a view toward imparting scriptural truth to the actual audience. See Grammatical-Historical hermeneutics.
• In Contemporary art, context is often used to describe everything other than the content of the piece of work. For example the way in which a painting is hung within a gallery, the political situation at the time of viewing, the amount of wine consumed at the private view.
• In Sitcoms, the context is the issues and trends that surround the time that the show is set in, e.g the sitcom I love Lucy relflects many issues and trends from its context of the 1950's.
• In Contextual advertising, context decides what ads to serve on a particular page based on the content of that page.
• In Psychology, context refers to the background stimuli that accompany some kind of foreground event. For example, if a rat is foraging and is frightened by a cat, the place (and possibly time) of foraging is the context and the cat is the foreground event. There seems to be a specialized neural structure, the hippocampus, for the processing of some kinds of context.

• International and Interdisciplinary Conferences on Modeling and Using Context (CONTEXT): http://context-web.org/

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