Context-sensitive expressions are words or phrases whose meaning changes based on the situation. They're like chameleons, adapting to their surroundings. Pronouns, demonstratives, and time-related words are common examples that rely on who's talking, when, and where.

These expressions are tricky because they blur the line between semantics and pragmatics. They challenge traditional meaning theories and spark debates about how much meaning comes from words versus context. Understanding them is key to grasping how language works in real-life communication.

Context-Sensitive Expressions

Context-sensitive expressions in linguistics

• Linguistic items whose meaning depends on the context in which they are used
• Examples include pronouns ("I," "you," "she"), demonstratives ("this," "that"), and indexicals ("here," "now")
• Interpretation relies on extralinguistic factors such as the speaker, addressee, time, and place of the utterance
• Contribute to the overall meaning of a sentence by referring to elements in the context
• Allow for efficient communication by avoiding repetition and enabling reference to the immediate context

Factors influencing context-sensitive interpretation

• Speaker and addressee
  • Interpretation of pronouns like "I" and "you" depends on who is speaking and who is being addressed
• Time of utterance
  • Temporal expressions like "now," "yesterday," and "tomorrow" are interpreted relative to the time the utterance is made
• Place of utterance
  • Spatial expressions like "here" and "there" are interpreted relative to the location of the speaker
• Discourse context
  • Interpretation of anaphoric expressions ("he," "she," "it") depends on the preceding discourse
  • Antecedents mentioned earlier in the discourse determine the referents of anaphoric expressions
• Shared knowledge between interlocutors
  • Common ground and mutual beliefs influence the interpretation of context-sensitive expressions
  • Interlocutors rely on their shared knowledge to resolve ambiguities and determine the intended referents

Context-Sensitivity and Meaning

Context-sensitivity vs semantics-pragmatics interface

• Highlights the interaction between semantics and pragmatics
  • Semantics deals with the literal meaning of expressions
  • Pragmatics concerns the meaning in context
• Interpretation requires both semantic and pragmatic information
  • Semantics provides the basic meaning (e.g., "I" refers to the speaker)
  • Pragmatics helps determine the specific referent in a given context (e.g., who the speaker is in a particular situation)
• Division of labor between semantics and pragmatics is a subject of debate
  • Some theories propose a minimal semantic meaning and a greater role for pragmatics
  • Others argue for a more substantial semantic contribution and a smaller pragmatic component

Challenges of context-sensitivity for meaning theories

• Traditional truth-conditional semantics struggles to account for context-sensitivity
  • Focuses on the conditions under which a sentence is true
  • Requires additional mechanisms to capture context-dependent meaning
• Dynamic semantic theories have been developed to address context-sensitivity
  • Model meaning as the potential to update the context
  • Account for the way context-sensitive expressions change their meaning across different contexts
• Pragmatic theories (Relevance Theory) emphasize the role of inference in interpreting context-sensitive expressions
  • Hearers use contextual cues and pragmatic principles to infer the intended meaning
  • Highlights the importance of the hearer's perspective in communication
• Multiplicity of factors influencing context-sensitive expressions poses challenges for building a comprehensive theory of meaning
  • Theories must integrate semantic, pragmatic, and cognitive aspects to fully capture the interpretation process