The context can be physical or symbolic.
Context is a term derived from the Latin word contextus and refers to everything that surrounds , either physically or symbolically, an event. Therefore, a fact can be interpreted or understood from the context.
This environment assumes that the context can be material ( “The criminal took advantage of the natural environment to hide behind the trees” ) or symbolic (the social environment, the economic environment or other).
Context is made up of a series of circumstances (such as time and physical space) that facilitate the understanding of a message. For example: a portal that publishes a title such as “Carlos rested” does not provide the necessary data for the reader to decode the message. On the other hand, the title “After playing four matches in two days, tennis player Carlos López rested and did not show up for training at the start of preparation for the Davis Cup” can be interpreted without problems since it presents relevant information about the context.
The context in the language
The linguistic context , on the other hand, refers to those factors that are related to the stage of generation of a statement and that affect its meaning and interpretation. This means that a message depends on syntax , grammar and vocabulary, but also on context.
The extralinguistic context refers to the place, the possible interlocutors, the type of register and the moment in which a linguistic act takes place. These circumstances have an impact on the understanding of the linguistic situation.
Failure to take context into account can lead to communication problems.
Key in communication
Context is so important in communication that it should be the first thing to consider when reading a book, watching a movie, listening to a song, or simply talking to another person. Starting from cultural differences and ending with the variations present in the same language within the same country, it is evident that what is correct for some may not be correct for others . For example, in some cultures it is polite to eat with your hands instead of cutlery, while in others this attitude can be considered disgusting and uncivilized.
The same is true of language; among friends of the same age group, it is common to use codes that would not be appropriate in another setting. This is seen a lot among teenagers, as their way of speaking tends to be scatterbrained and full of idioms, so that if an older person hears a conversation of this kind, they will probably not understand much of it. Unfortunately, contextual differences are not always reasonable, as they sometimes arise from a lack of commitment to the language and not due to a spontaneous series of modifications.
The concept of context in music and computing
In music, on the other hand, contextual differences can be noted both in the musical and textual aspects. For example, in popular singing it is very common that there is no very solid technical training, and in most cases the artists have nothing more than their raw instrument. Therefore, if we contrast this with a life dedicated to vocal study, which is normal in opera and chamber music, we will surely find a level of tuning that is negligible in one context and absolutely unthinkable in the other. As for the lyrics of the songs, a rap contains a language that may seem vulgar, but it is correct in that type of composition , where a poem by Neruda would probably make no sense.
In computing , context represents the information needed to stop a task at a certain point and resume it at a later time. This information varies depending on the type of hardware and application; and two people may find very different ways to achieve the same result, probably with different degrees of efficiency, so the logic used must also be considered when deciding the characteristics of a particular context. A common example is the sleep function in operating systems, which allows us to freeze the computer so that when we resume working, we find everything exactly as we left it.