communication event, the topic, the purpose of the event, the setting, the participants, and the background knowledge shared in the event.
However, Mey 1993:39-40 defines that context is more than just a matter of reference and of understanding what things are about, practically speaking. Context is
also what gives our utterances their deeper ‗true‘, but not in a philosophical sense of the word meaning. As in the example:
It‟s a long time since we visited your mother. This sentence, when it is uttered at the coffee-table after dinner in a married
couple‘s living room, has a totally different pragmatic meaning than the same sentence uttered by a husband to his wife while they are standing in front of the
hippopotamus enclosure at the local zoo. Thus, the context is also of paramount importance in assigning a proper value such phenomena as presuppositions,
implicature, and the whole set of context-oriented features which were briefly mentioned.
a. Context of Situation
Hymes in Wardhaugh 1986:245-247 believes there are various factors that are involved in speaking; proposed with the name: an ethnographic framework.
They are described as an ethnography of a comunicative event which are relevant in understanding how that particular communicative event achieves its objectives.
They are as follows:
1 Setting and scene S
Setting refers to the time and place, i.e., the concrete physical circumstances in which speech takes place. Scene refers to the abstract
psychological setting, ot the cultural definition of the occasion. For examples: a graduation speech will have a joyful scene, while President of
USA‘s speeches on the inauguration will have a serious one within a designated setting.
2 Participants P
This has various combinations of speaker-listener, addressor- addressee, or sender-receiver. They generally fill certain socially specified
roles. For examples: a teacher-a student, a doctor-a patient, a parent-a kid, and many more.
3 Ends E
This refers to the conventionally recognised and expected outcomes of an exchange as well as to the personal goals that participants seek to
accomplish on particular occasions. For examples: In a courtroom, each person in that room has their personal goals they want to achieve because
the court process has many participants itself, i.e., the judge, the jury, the witness, the prosecutor, the accused, and the defence.
4 Act sequence A
It refers to the actual form and content of what is said; the precise words used, how they are used, and the relationship of what is said to the
actual topic at hand. For example: to join public lectures, casual conversations, or even parties, each has their own sense of act sequence
which if the participants wants to be mingle with, they need to follow the system of language and things talked within.
5 Key K
It refers to the tone, manner, or spirit in which a particular message is conveyed. For examples: to be serious, sarcastic, humoruous, light-hearted,
or from the gesture, posture, or even deportment.
6 Instrumentalities I
They refer to the choice of channel, e.g. oral, written, or telegraphic, and to the actual form of speech employed, such as the language, dialect,
code, or register that is chosen.
7 Norms of interaction and interpretation N
They refer to specific behaviours and properties that attach to speaking and also to how these may be viewed by someone who does not share them.
For examples: loudness, silence, gaze return, and many more.
8 Genre G
It refers to clearly demarcated type of utterance; such things as poems, proverbs, riddles, sermons, lectures, prayers, and so on. They are indeed
different with casual speeches. For example: church services conduct sermons, colleges have public lectures, poets read poems, and so on.
Holmes 1992:12 proposes a concept that context shall be seen in several factors that are relevant and helpful. In any linguistic choices will generally reflect
the influence of one or more on the following: 1
The participant: who is speaking and who are they speaking to? 2
The setting or social context of the interaction: where are they speaking? 3
The topic: what is being talked about? 4
The function: why are they speaking?
b. Context of Socio-cultural
