2. Is This a Context or Setting…
Okay so you ran into your non-native English speaking friend again. This time it was on the way home from Michael & Emily’s combined birthday party.
You pull up to a gas station, get out of your car, start pumping gas and you notice your friend standing on the opposite side of the pump doing the same. After the “hi” “hi” exchange your friend says:
“(YOUR NAME INSERTED HERE), Are context & setting completely interchangeable? Can I use either one in place of the other or are there certain situations where only one or the other will do and if so what are those situations?”
If your friend is satisfied with your answer he/she will pay for your tank of gas and buy you a giant slushie.
***
So – what’s your answer, smarty pants?
They are similar, but not interchangable. For example, when one considers a particular moment in time (such as a murder) then context refers to the actions and tensions which led to this moment (such as discovering your partner has been cheating on you coupled with the fact that you have just been made redundant, and how this makes you feel), whereas setting refers to the actual place where the murder was committed and its general geography.
Basically, context is prior actions and feelings and their impact, and setting is the area where the resulting action or decision was taken.
So just to clarify even further, you are saying “context” has to do with the intangible and “setting” has to do with the tangible?
Just like Chinese, words in English have a history (well, maybe a little less of a history
. Context comes from the idea that words are surrounded by text, and the text around the words influences the meaning of the word itself. So it often has to do with interpreting meaning, though it could be used metaphorically in less specific ways.
Setting comes from the idea of an arranged set of objects, like a table setting. Everything has been set out in a certain arrangement with respect to each other. This is a visual picture, and as a result setting is often used to refer either to the place where something is “set” or “staged” and metaphorically has come to be used often for places where something happens, even if no one (except maybe God?) ever created that context (note, metaphorical usage of context because we’re talking about meaning, in this case the meaning of “setting.”)
I find it curious to discuss grammar in this setting–e.g., sitting in front of my fireplace in Colorado typing on your blog as a “game,” but it’s pretty hard to imagine it will get me a free tank of gas or a bing sha in my current setting, It will be interesting, though, to see how people respond to my answer in this context–e.g., when they read it stacked up in the comments section under your question/blog header.
Good work, Michael and Emily