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m10 ~ (2008 ~) pp. 14-24© 2008 ~B*illiJfl~~~Context and Structure in a Theory of Pragmatics

Jef Verschueren
University of Antwerp

This paper explores a small but important detail of a theory of pragmatics, the relationship between linguistic structure on the one hand and context on the other. The background is a theory that views language use as a process of interactive meaning generation employing as its tool a set of production andinterpretation choices. 'Structure' is here defined as any combination of elements at any layer of linguistic organization or form at which choices can be made. ' Context', then, stands for any combinationof ingredients of a communicative event, along any set of parameters of variability, with which linguistic choices are interadaptable. It is argued that structure and context cannot be treated as if they wereseparate entities. The paper shows that there is an ontological link between the two (forms can change
their meaning with a change of context, and contexts can change with changes in linguistic fonn) as wellas an epistemological one (structural resources being used to mark an appeal to contextual phenomenain the interactive dynamics of the activity that interlocutors are engaged in).
Keywords:

1.

Context, Structure, Adaptability, Negotiability, Variability

Introduction

Linguistic pragmatics has often been defined as the study of meaning in context.
Underlying this definition is the assumption that the main distinction to be identified isthe one between semantics and pragmatics, seen as two separable components of an overall linguistic theory. This author does not side with that assumption, and many would
agree that it is hard, if not impossible, to talk about meaning without taking into accountcontext. Be that as it may, 1 it is impossible to avoid the observation that any study of language use must deal with linguistic structures as well as with aspects of context. Though
it may look like a small detail of a theory of pragmatics, the relationship between structure and context is important to consider carefully. It is not as straightforward or unproblematic as it might seem at first sight. That is the issue this paper wants to explore.
In order to do so, I will start with a btief sketch of an overall framework which conceives linguistic pragmatics as the interdisciplinary (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural)

1

Such issues are discussed in just about every available textbook of pragmatics, as e.g. Levinson(1983), Mey ( 1993). An explanation for why insisting on an attempt to contrast pragmatics with semantics may be misguided, is to be found in Verschueren (1999).

14

Context and Structure in a Theory of Pragmatics

15

science of language use. 'Language use' is viewed as a process of interactive meaning
generation employing as its tool a set of production and interpretation choices from a variable and varyi ng range of options, made in a negotiable manner, inter-adapting with communicative needs, and making full use of the reflexivity of the human mind.
In addition to notions such as dynamics and salience, which characterize the core ofwhat language use is all about, such an approach to pragmatics hinges crucially on a clear
assessment of the ' nuts and bolts' that are being put to use, namely features of linguistic
structure and aspects of context.
'Structure' is here defined as any combination of elements at any layer of linguisticorganization or form at which choices can be made. 'Context' , then, stands for any combination of ingredients of a communicative event, along any set of parameters of variability, with which linguistic choices are inter-adaptable.
It will be argued that structure and context cannot be treated as if they were separate
entities. It will be shown that there is an ontological link between the two (forms canchange their meaning with a change of context, and contexts can change with changes inlinguistic form) as well as an epistemological one (structural resources being used to markan appeal to contextual phenomena in the interactive dynamics of the activity that interlocutors are engaged in).

A theory of pragmatics

2.

For thi s author, linguistic pragmatics is the interdisciplinary (cognitive, social, andcultural) science of language use/ where 'language use' is primarily seen as the interactive activity of generating meaning.3 At the simplest level of analysis, this activity consists in the constant making of production and comprehension choices from a varying andvariable range of options (thus elevating VARIABILITY to the status of a key notion for
pragmatics, as will be emphasized again later). These options are either structural (situated at any level of linguistic structure, from the smallest phonetic detail to the widest discursive strategy) or contextual (pertaining to any ingredient of a speech event). Including
context in the realm of objects of choice-making implies that it is not seen as a fixed outside reality, though the existence of some sort of outside reality is not disputed. Aspectsof context do not have intrinsic relevance to the verbal conununication process; rather,2

For a full account of this specific version of a theory of pragmatics, the reader is referred toYerschuere n (1999). The same perspective is represented by the Handbook of Pragmatics (Yerschueren
eta!. eds. 1995 tT.) and the International Pragmatics Association (http://ipra.ua. ac.be).
3 I use 'generating' rather than 'constructing,' because the latter implies too much emphasis on intentionality. Though intentionality is of course cmcial in interacti ve meani ng generation, this process is notentirely defined by it: quite often, meanings also 'emerge' without a direct relation to the interlocutors'
intentions.

16

they de1ive their relevance from the interlocutors' mientation (as will be explained in
more detail later) . Both utterer and interpreter are engaged in the dynamics of focusing,defocusing, leaving out, or even inventing. Structure and context- as will be the main
tenet of this paper to show-are not independent from each other; for one thing, every
utterance becomes part of the context as soon as it has been produced; together, structure
and context define the locus of meaning-generating processes.
Variability should never be underestimated by a pragmatician. As early as 1974,
Dell Hymes already said that "in the study of language as a mode of action, variation isa clue and a key" (Hymes 1974, p . 75). In essence, the notion refers to all the options
that are av~ilable within a given language system and speech community. But 'language
system' and 'speech community' are abstractions and vmiability really goes much further.4 Just consider a couple of examples.
First there is the case of the Jordanian young man taking a driver's test in Belgium.
Interpretation in Arabic is offered and accepted. But the interpreter is of Moroccan
descent. As it happens, Moroccan Arabic traffic tenus are often simply French borrowings; a sidewalk, for instance, is a trottoir. Of course, the Jordanian flunks his exam.
Later he takes the test again in English, and passes without problems. What is at stake
here is a well-known form of intra-language variability, which some institutions fail totake into account. But what is relevant in the practice of language use must also be taken
into account when constructing a theory of language use.
Going yet a bit further, there is the case of the third-generation Argentinian of Italiandescent, who was used to speaking Italian with his grandparents. When he went to Italy
as an adolescent and tried out his Italian, he soon discovered that what he spoke when hethought he spoke Italian, was what his grandparents spoke when they thought they werespeaking Spanish. This is a form of variability that is much harder to take into accountand that therefore requires much more talent-or training-for meaning negotiation, as
there is interference between mere usage, the metapragmatic placement of the code, andeven aspects of identity construction.
In fact, variability goes all the way to the level of idiolects, a phenomenon that isgravely understudied in linguistics (in spite of early and valuable exceptions such as
Fillmore et al. (eds.), 1979). Ultimately, everyone speaks a different language, a fact thathas become more easily ascertainable with the help of computer tools. In forensic linguistics (e.g. as practiced by Malcolm Coulthard) even a form of textual fingerprinting5
is being developed. A by now classical case is the FBI hunt fo r the Unabomber. The

4
Jn a discussion of this phenomenon, I prefer the term 'variability' over 'diversity', as the latter stillallows for the co-existence of different stable systems, while variabil ity clearly implies the constantpotential not only for difference but also for change.
5 The metaphor is not entirely appropriate, as this would require a read ily available data bank of textual profiles.

Context and Structure in a Theory of Pragmatics

i.. · -.

17

name was devised for an American anarchist, later identified as Theodore Kaczynski, who
ki lled three and wounded twenty-thxee in sixteen separate bombing incidents targeting
university professors and airline officials from 1978 to 1995. At a certain moment
Kaczynski, in a letter to a number of newspapers, promised to stop the attacks if theywould be willing to publish a manifesto. Some newspapers complied. When reading the
manifesto, Kaczynski's brother's wife had a hunch that the author must have been her
brother-in-law. Kaczynski was arrested, and proof of his authorship was sought mainly
in text1.tal points of idiosyncratic or idiolectal comparison between the manifesto and othertexts and letters he had written earlier. This is one of the better-known cases, but (oftenwith the help of computer tools) similar compruisons and similar identifications havebecome more common (see Coulthru·d 2004).
Yru·iability is not the only key notion to be kept in mind for a theory of pragmatics.
Neither production nor comprehension choices are based on fixed or mechanical formfunction relationships. On the contrary, they are constantly subject to NEGOTIABILITY,
which makes the processes involved in language use highly dynamic. Under such circumstances, successful communicative use of language is only possible thanks to the
ADAPTABILITY of the human mind,6 in relation to which all the processes occupy a specific status; this relationship between the meaning-generating processes and the humanmind I refer to with the tenn salience, a cover term that allows for vru·ious levels of conscious inte ntionality, automaticity, and reflexivity or metapragmatic awareness.
As an illustration for the dynamics and reflexivity involved, consider the fo ll owing
sentence, spoken by the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, addressing Congress:"I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you
realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
This utterance illustrates the fully reflexive nature of choice-making on the comprehension side, which shows a dynamics that does not stop after an interaction sequence hasceased, and that also plays a role in reflexive after-the-fact auto-comprehension or metacomprehension on the utterer's side. The communicative dynamics consists of movement
through consecutive and/or overlapping contexts and alternating focus on d~fferent levelsof structure (a formulation that already anticipates some of the points to be made in thispaper). One might ask whether this is simply an idiosyncrasy of the speech of the
Chairman of the US Federal Reser ve. But this assumption loses its appeal quickly when
we look at other examples of language use, as in the following quotation:'I

6

There are good reasons why James Nairne ( 1997) gives his psychology textbook the title The
Adaptive Mind. An in-depth study of the same phenomenon is to be found in Buller (2005). And forthe way in which the notion of adaptability functions in relation to language and language use , see
Verschueren & Brisard's (2002) Handbook of Pragmatics article.

·-

18

"When I ~old my wife that I was leaving her because I was tired of living her life, shesaid something very strange. She said it wasn't really her life. I have been thinking
about that in the past two years, and I believe now that what my wife was saying wasthat her life was as much a series of accidents as I thought mine was. [ ... ] At the time

I saw it only as a rebuke and I was in no mood to accept it. I thought she was sayingthat my life with her had given me strength and spirit and knowledge of the world:
these were her gifts to me, and I was now using them to spoil her life. If I had
thought she meant what I now believe she did, I would have been very moved, and I
might never have left her." (V.S. Naipaul, 2004, p. 113)
W hat is happening here is essentially the same, though stretched out over a longer pe1iod
of time, and though the example looks more like what we might recognize from ordinary
forms of interaction.
The resulting structure of a theory of pragmatics is represented in Figure 1.

CONTEXT1
STRUCTURE

J

locus

DYNAMICS

processes

SALIENCE

statusmeaning generation
Figure 1. The structure of a pragmatic theory
Referring to Figure 1, we could say that the topic of this paper is the double-pointed arrow
between the notions 'structure' and 'context', or, for that matter, the definition of the' locus' of processes of language use. But first we need to go a bit deeper into the two key
notions.

3.

Structure and context

Neither 'structure' nor 'context' can be granted conceptual autonomy. Both have tobe related, at least, to the overarching notions in terms of which we try to understand language use, the most general one being the notion of adaptability. That is why I generally prefer the more elaborate phrases 'structural objects of adaptability' and 'contextual
correlates of adaptability'. T he next step, and this paper's core contribution, is to relate
structu re and context to each other. After focusing briefly on one of the traditional

Context and Structure in a Theory of Pragmatics

19

notions linki ng the two, namely ' appropliateness', sections 4 and 5 will then constitutean attempt to go beyond this customary approach.
Any (combination of) element(s) at any Layer or level of linguistic organization orform at which choices can be made, constitutes a structural object of adaptability or, forshort, an element of 'structure'. Thus, languages, codes and styles are objects of adaptability, albeit at a high level of structuring. So are all utterance-building ingredients, fromsounds, over morphemes, words, clauses, sentences and propositions all the way to suprasentential units. Also utterances and utterance clusters (from the exclamation "Ouch" toa full conversation or an entire novel) fit in here, as well as utterance-building ptinciples
such as coherence, relevance, information structuring, foregrounding/backgrounding, andthe like. Usually, choices are not isolated, but rather part of an integrated process ofchoice-making that interrelates phenomena at different structural levels. 7
Any (combination of) ingredient(~) of a communicative event, along any (set of)parameter(s) of variability, with which linguistic choices are interadaptable, constitutes(a) contextual correlate(s) of adaptability or, for short, an element of 'context'. The central entity to which parameters of vmiability are attached is the language user, located ina physical, social, cultural, and mental world. Not only is the language user central as a'locus'; he or she is also the agent who defines the context. The language user is not only
obliged to make structural choices. Also context is really a matter of choice, both in producing and in interpreting utterances. Without denying the existence and importance of
an 'outside reality' , every language user creates his or her own 'lines of vision' by focusing on a selection from the range of potentially relevant aspects of a wider 'objective'
context. In other words, context is the product of contextualization: 'things' are made into
context, in the service of the overall process of meaning generation.8
In the pragmatic literature, it has been common practice to relate structure to context by means of the notion of appropriateness. T hough pragmaticians have for a longtime been convinced that objective reality 'out there' either does not exist or is only a notso-useful and impossible-to-identify point of reference, still there has been a dominanttendency to look at choices of linguistic fo1ms or structures as being based on a priorassessment of contextual factors in order to make those choices 'appropriate'. This uni directional and often normative view, of which simpler as well as more sophisticated versions exist,9 is what this paper wishes to challenge or refine.

7

For a more extensive account, see Verschueren (1999: 115- 146).
For a fu ll account, see Verschueren ( 1999: 75-114).
9 An example of a simpler version is this author's much earlier attempt (in Verschueren 1978) to propose the building of an integrated theory of pragmatics on the notion of appropriateness conditions.
Much more soph istication is to be found in Fetzer' s (2007) edited collection of articles on Context andAppropriateness.
8

4. The ontological link
Though context and structure do not coincide, neither are they separable entities that
simply happen to show relationships. They are linked ontologicaUy, 'by nature' as itwere. At least two linkage points may be discerned at once.
First, any choice of linguistic channel merges context and structure. Both speaking
and writing as linguistic channels are at the same time choices of context and of structure: they have a 'physical ' appearance that defines at the same time aspects of how things
can be 'said' (structure) and aspects of the possible circumstances (context). The essential nature of the link is most obvious when something 'goes wrong' : a pen running out
of ink, a computer breaking down, facial paralysis immobilizing part of one's lips, etc.
But also when everything works well , the connection cannot be ignored: even a speaker's
individual identity is given away by the specificities of the sounds produced by one's
speech apparatus, thus imposing contextual constraints on content and form, while content and form cannot be produced without immediately displaying an important contextual parameter.
Second, there is the phenomenon of linguistic context: as soon as an utterance ismade, it becomes itself part of the context. This is rendered visible by markers of contextual cohesion (conjunction, anaphora, self-reference, contrasting, comparison, etc.), bytraces of intertexluality (allowing us to reconstruct flows of meaning), by sequencing phenomena, and the like.
But there is more. The meaning of forms or structures can be fundamentally affected by a change in context. For instance, when the words Au bon accueil (literally ' at thegood welcome' -a most inviting formula in French) adorn the front of a hotel or a restaurant in the Swiss Alps, all you see is a hotel or a restaurant that signals its hospitality.
The language-context connection is quite ordinary in that case. But put the same words
on a nearl y destroyed building as in Figure 2, and the change of context will change thesignificance of the words: as the words become funny, what you get is a different meaning, even though in this case that was clearly not intended by the person putting up thesign in the first place.

Figure 2. Au bon accueil

Context and Structure in a Theory of Pragmatics

21

Conversely, context may be affected by a choice of linguistic forms. One of the ways
in which language affects context, for instance, is by switching from one language toanother. This is a very dynamic process. But a relatively static example already illustrates the point. One of the neighborhoods in Antwerp is called Groenenhoek. This literally means 'green corner'. One of the cafes in tlus perfectly ordinary Flemish neighborhood, however, is called Green Corner, in E nglish. This change of words, a simple
translation into English, somehow lifts the neighborhood out of its ordinariness, with agood amount of ironic self-reflection.
These examples show that the relationship between structure and context does not
simply boil down to unidirectional (and normative) 'appropriateness' . T he connection ismuch more profound, and at least bidirectional-which justifies reference to interadaptability. Just as the choice of a term of address may be based on an assessment of existing social relationships, the nature of a social relationship may be profoundly affected by
the choice of a term of address. A further illustration can be found in the following set
of utterances:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)

':"":'.,. <!

It' s disgusting.
It's irresponsible.
There are a number of reasons to reconsider.
People perceive this as inconsiderate, even demagogical.
The organizational structure has to be changed.

These could be all recontextualizing ' translations ' of "I don ' t agree with the measures thatare now being proposed". They clearly show different orientations to context. On the one
hand this means that the choices could be made on the basis of specific features of thecontext, such as the relationship between the speaker and the addressee, where (I) could
be addressed to a friend, (2) to a colleague, (3) in a board meeting, (4)-assuming a university context-to the ·vice-chancellor, and (5) in a 'union' meeting. On the other hand,the choices may also be based on an attempt to construct a context. Thus (1) through (5)could all be addressed to the same person (e.g. the vice-chancellor), but clem·ly with different effects, both when compm·ed to each other and when compm·ed to the 'regular'
usages mentioned.
Emphasizing bidirectionality (or interadaptability) could still lead to the assumptionthat we m·e dealing with fundamentally separable, though interconnected, entities. Suchan assumption would, however, ignore the fact that in many cases there is no easy answer
at all to the question of what is structure and what is context or the question of whichcomes first, an assessment of contextual parameters or a linguistic choice with contextual effects. What we are confronted with, as already anticipated in section 2, is a communicative dynamics that may consist of movement through consecutive and/or overlapping contexts and alternating focus on different levels of structure.

5. The epistemological link
The biggest mistake in a discussion of context would be to assume that there is sucha thing as an objective or stable 'reality-out-there'. This mistake is rarely made these days
by pragmaticians. What is barely focused on, however, is the observation that such aseemingly comfortable notion would make 'context' utterly useless for analytical purposes. ' Reality-out-there' is by definition without limits, and if we would have to take itinto account in its objective and stable form when analyzing a piece of discourse, there
could be no end to the analysis.
A more complex notion of context which denies its objectivity and stability corresponds much better with communicative reality, as all language users are positioned subjectively in context and it is this subjective positioning (referred to earlier as 'lines ofvision') that determines basic properties of communicative interaction. Paradoxically, themore complex notion is also much easier to handle for purposes of analysis, and hence
more useful. The analytical task consists in tracing those aspects of context that can beshown to function in the meaning generation process. The question is, then, how we cantrace them. The answer is to be found in what I refer to as the epistemological link
between structure and context: structural resources are used to mark an appeal to con-.

. jtextual phenomena in the interactive dynamics of the activity the interlocutors areengaged in. In other words, context and structure really work together (as already pointed out in the previous section as well), and this provides us with the tools we need foranalysis .
Thanks to this epistemological link, there is no need for us to speculate about context, as we can observe the way in which contextual phenomena are brought in by language users to generate meanings. An old example (Verschueren 1999: 159-164) stillserves the purposes of illustration:(6)· ... ·,

[Situation: coffee shop in Berkeley, Califo rnia, in 1981]
a. Customer [just coming in] to waitress:is this non-smoking?
b. Waitress:
You can USE it as non-smoking.
Thanks.
c. Customer [sitting down]:

Theoretically, the customer's opening question can either be interpreted as his self-identification as a non-smoker seeking smoke-free space or as a smoker looking for a table
where he will not be chased away if he starts smoking. Without going into any of thedetails of this dynamic, though brief exchange, we can know without any speculation thatthe first interpretation is the con ect one, as the waitress's response is based on it, and as
her interpretation is clearly accepted by the customer. In other words, the precise value of
this contextual parameter can simply be traced.
There are two helpful notions to supp01t research efforts in this area. The first is thenotion of an activity type. The term is borrowed from Levinson (1992), but it could aswell be substituted with 'genre' (see Briggs & Bauman 1992). It can be used to refer toContext and Structure in a Theory of Pragmatics

23

any identifiable combination of ingredients from any set of contextual dimensions that is'meaningful' in the sense that it provides a frame of interpretation for whatever happensin the course of specific tokens of the type. An example would be a 'job interview', or a
' news report', or a ' lecture'. The point is that interpretations are partly based on expectations that follow from normative patterns (reflected in choices of forms) associated withactivity types. An activity type, therefore, is a structural phenomenon associated with (oreven partly at the level of) patterns of meaning, defined in terms of aspects of context.
Defining properties of a job interview, for instance, are certain types of asymmetricalsocial relationship against an economic background, corresponding with structural properties of a typical question-answer interaction process and involving interpretations basedon expectations as to the content of what is said.
A second useful notion in this context is the notion of a contextualization cue (asintroduced by Gumperz 1982). The term contextualization cue can be applied to any formal or structw-al marker of the way in which a stretch of discourse derives meaning fromits embeddedness in context. Contextualization cues can be situated at highly divergent
levels of structure, from prosody and intonation to pauses, backchannel cues (or listenerresponses), and code switches. But the point is that they lead to specific contextualized
inferences or interpretations on the basis of the meaning expectations they are habituallyassociated with.
Both activity types and contextualization cues provide bridges from the locus ofcommunicative phenomena to processes of meaning generation. One could say that activity types start the construction of the bridge from the vantage point of context, while contextualization cues embody the perspective of elements of structw-e. Both should be
invoked for a proper understanding of what happens in language use.

6. Conclusion
Needless to say that what we refer to as an epistemological link between structure
and context is fundamentally based on metapragmatic awareness, which turns every utterance into an essential part of its own context. This observation, of course, re-emphasizes
the ontological link that we pointed at before. Be that as it may, the context-structure linkmust be kept in mind in pragmatic research. Doing so enables us to empirically assess
the relevance of elements of context without lapsing into speculation , in spite of the overwhelming dynamics of processes of interactive meaning generation in language use.

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