Situational Context

Context
 Context must take into consideration while
studying discourse analysis.
 According to George Yule:
“Context is the physical environment in which
a word is used.”
 One common point of the context is the
environment in which a discourse occurs.

Cont.
 Context refers to the setting in which
communication takes place.
 The context helps establish meaning and can
influence what is said and how it is said.

Situational Context
 Situational context, or context of situation,
refers to the environment, time and place, etc.
in which the discourse occurs, and also the
relationship between the participants.
 It is one of the types of context that influence
communication.
 Deals with appropriate behavior and actions
associated with the situation.

Cont.
 This is the immediate physical
correspondence, the situation where the
interaction is taking place at the moment of
speaking.
 For example:
o People talking on the phone and making
gestures with their hands or face.
o Go right or take left (by indicating).

Cont.
 The hearer and speaker do not share the
situational context, so the gestures do not add
meaning to the words.

Cont.
 Each atmosphere has its own set of rules for
how to communicate.
 You would not talk in the same manner in a
same situation.
 For example:
o At funeral or at wedding

Components
 Situational context influences communication.
 Setting/place (home, school, play field,
theater, etc.)
 Activity (lecture, discussion, free play, pair-
share, party, etc.)
 Environment (materials, light, noise,
furniture, temperature, number of people, etc.)

Cont.
 For example:
o In a classroom, a lecturer creates an imaginary
situation to write a story i.e. robbery of a bank.
 Setting (Classroom)
 Activity (Writing)
 Environment (Material, no. of people)

Situational context & register
 The Field-Tenor-Mode approach is used for
text analysis and, simply how text produce
o Field (What)
o Tenor (Who)
o Mode (How)

Cont.
 Field (What):
o Field of discourse refers to the ongoing
activity.
 Tenor (Who):
o Refers to the participants in a discourse, their
relationships to each other, and their purposes.
 Mode (How):
 Mean of communication i.e. written or spoken

Conclusion
 The situational context is defined by the event
itself; you communicate differently in different
settings.
 You use differing types and styles of
communication in different type of settings.
 Imagine using the same type of speech in
different situations.
 This would not be appropriate at all.

Situational Context

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Situational Context