Importance of context

By Marion Wyse

WHEN conversation gets confusing, North Americans say, "I know you think you understand what you thought you heard me say, but I'm not sure if what you heard was what I really meant."

We can learn how to find out what is going on around us in our everyday lives.

But put into a new environment, we don't know what clues to look for. This can be disastrous or funny — but it is always embarrassing.

Nobody wants to feel "left out" or "clueless."

As I adapt to China, I learn why teaching culture is harder than teaching language. Language has rules. Context doesn't.

Every word needs a context to give it meaning. If you don't know the context, the word is nonsense. You have no "clue" what it means. The "clue" is the thread that leads you safely through danger.

In the Greek myth, a princess gave the hero, Theseus, a ball of thread. He tied it to a pillar before descending into the depths.

As he went down he unwound the "clue." At the bottom he killed the monster then followed the "clue" back to the light where the princess awaited him.

A word's context is its "clue."

A big English dictionary gives a sentence for each meaning a word has.

A thesaurus gives similar words for different "shades"

[1] [2] [3] 

【Importance of context】相關(guān)文章：

Context and Word Choosing in Translation04-30

Context Is the Key to the Understanding of Language04-27

The Translatology Process of the WordGazein Chinese Context05-02

Morita Context環(huán)的冪零性05-02

Current Approaches to Improving Students Writing Proficiency in an EFL Context05-02

Sorption of a triazol derivative by soils: importance of surface acidity04-30

The Importance Of Protecting Intellectual Property作文300字05-01

The importance of confidence英語(yǔ)作文（通用17篇）12-26

Nucleosomal Context of Binding Sites Influences Transcription Factor Binding Affinity and Gene Regulation05-03

基礎(chǔ)知識(shí)的重要性 The importance of learning basic skills11-12