Monday, August 23, 2010

3. MEANING OPERATES CONTEXT DEPENDENTLY

If I call my girlfriend "sweetheart" and then call a waitress I don't know "sweetheart" I am saying the same thing.  Yet, I may get a completely different reaction from each person.
No word or behavior is an island.  Everything we do or say occurs within some context.  The meaning we give to what people say and do is altered by the context.

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