How would you describe "context" in layman terms? Is "in the context of the sentence or phrase" redundant?

Question

I have never been great at or used the word "context" that much and need some help with my sentence......

when using “old” to mean “former” you cannot use a modifier with it e.g. "very old"; you can also determine what meaning was intended from the context (the surrounding words in the phrase or sentence)

I could have sworn that I read or heard "in the context of the sentence" before — could I use "intended from the context of the sentence or would that make no sense/be redundant since the dictionary from oxford languages say: "the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning". ??

thanks

Answer 1

In the literal sense, "con-text" -- the text that appears alongside some given text -- is indeed redundant in that expression.

However, the word has generalized quite a bit. Now it's commonly used to mean "background information", "presuppositions / things taken for granted", "starting point (of a discussion)", "situation". In this sense, it's essentially contrasted with "in isolation". You might say, "What's the context of that question?" when they want to know why it was asked, what the motivation and intention for it is, for example.

Thus, "in the context of the sentence" means "the word in question, considered in relation to these words". The implication is that there might have been other types of context, other sources of relevant information to adduce.

You could reduce the expression to "in the sentence" and sound elliptical, or you could reduce it to "in [its original] context" and sound slightly technical (relying on the audience to know that "context" properly means just the actual text around the word.

Answer 2

You would be well-advised to provide an example paragraph where „in the context of the sentence” is used, so that we may better understand.

As a general rule: yes, the text is (usually) its own context. So you don't need to specify that explicitly.

However, there are some cases where it makes sense:

• If a certain term may be misunderstood. For example: My motherboard behaves very motherly to its components. I know that the word motherly feels odd, but in the context of this sentence, I am using motherly to imply gentleness -- e.g. the motherboard BIOS is very careful and protective with the voltages it feeds to the components.
• To emphasize the length of the scope, within a larger or smaller scope. For example: I am writing a technical article about female antelopes, does, and there are plenty uses of doe/does to refer to this animal. At some point, I must make reference to the Department of the Environment, in short DOE. Well, I would have to point the reader to the possible misunderstanding: „In the context of this phrase, DOE is an acronym and refers to a department name”.