What linguistics is all about
Sentence in its context
A text is like the description of a scene in a theater play. It alludes to
an action which occurs at a certain place, at a certain time, in certain
circumstances. It make sense in a context of utterance, with a given speaker,
an intended audience, and with respect to known background facts.
Certain elements of this context are extra-linguistic, but language has also
its way to ground a sentence within an enunciation, with
deictics.
Va, cours, vole et nous venge.
There is no way to understand this sentence if you do not understand a number
of elements.
Remark: “nous” (“we”) is actually ambiguous.
What is this?
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