Context, Context, Context: Fourteenth Week

This blog would be quite remiss in its purpose if it did not consider “etymology” as a weekly word of interest. Johnson offers this use concerning the origins of words, “The descent or derivation of a word from its original…” The lexicographer states “etymology is from the Latin word etymologia and a Greek compound of ετυμος (etumos) and λογος (logos). According to the Oxford Latin Dictionary the Latin term comes from ετυμολογια (etumologia), rendering the Latin a very near transliteration with the same meaning – word origin.

While it is true one should not define a word by its etymology, especially given the antiquity of many English terms, the origin of words does paint a picture of their evolution through use. Perhaps more importantly, etymology lays a groundwork for meaning. One can only stray so far from a thing’s structure before it is left behind and something else is being contemplated. So it is with word origins.

However, the final arbiter of word meanings is context. Finding and understanding the context of a passage is vital to knowing how that particular word or phrase is being used. A simplified exploration of context can be divided into two fronts: immediate and extended. In typical book format, immediate context deals with how a word is being used in a single sentence or at most a paragraph and may be limited to less than a paragraph if long or complex. Extended context considers how a word or phrase is used in a chapter or section and finally in the book as a whole. Mortimer J. Adler discusses context and its relation to the words of which it consists and that describe it. He writes in, How to Read a Book:

Most of the words in any English book are familiar words. These words surround the strange words, the technical words, the words that may cause the reader some trouble. The surrounding words are the context for the words to be interpreted. The reader has all the materials he needs to do the job. (p. 202, See the link to the right for the Adler book.)

It is in matters of context that most people make mistakes in understanding and the misinterpretation that follows. The antidote to such mistakes often can simply start with a good dictionary or lexicon. For English words the Oxford English Dictionary will almost always be the best option. The particular characteristic that sets this multi-volume work apart is its extensive use of chronologically sequenced quotations. Investigating the range of quotations offered reveals a broad multilayered context of usages. If the range of word usages are accurate the researcher should come away with a rather complete set of possible meanings from which to choose. If those findings are coupled with the context of the passage or book considered and etymological backgrounds are not ignored, proper word meanings are quite certain to be found. It is certainly worth saying again: Dictionaries offer usages, but contexts determine meanings.  

Until next week.

John