2023/07/26 by Alex Davies · 5 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ascription #Bureaucracy #Computer science #Content (measure theory) #Context (archaeology) #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Incentive #Law #Linguistics #Manifesto #Political science #Social Media and Politics #Wikis in Education and Collaboration
paper · open access · doi:10.1093/pq/pqad071
published in The Philosophical Quarterly 74(2), 482-503 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2023/07/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract Context-sensitive expressions appear ill suited to the purpose of sharing content across contexts. Yet we regularly use them to that end (in regulations, textbooks, memos, guidelines, laws, minutes, etc.). This paper describes the utility of the concept of a metacontext for understanding cross-contextual content-sharing with context-sensitive expressions. A metacontext is the context of a group of contexts: an infrastructure that can channel non-linguistic incentives on content ascription so as to homogenize the content ascribed to context-sensitive expressions in each context in the group. Documents composed of context-sensitive expressions can share content across contexts when supported by an appropriate metacontext. The bible has its church, the textbook its education system, the form its bureaucracy, and the manifesto its social movement. Some metacontexts support cross-contextual content-sharing. Some don’t. A promising research programme (one with practical importance) would take metacontexts as its unit of analysis.