Glossar-English:Context-Building Acts

Sub-Item of: Image Pragmatics

Original: Kontextbildung

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Access to non-present situations Living beings are generally concerned only with the environment directly given to them. At best, the past appears implicitly in behaviors that have just been activated, insofar as these have previously been changed by certain situations, and the future as the conditions for the fulfillment of current desires. In contrast, humans master the ability to spontaneously detach themselves from the here and now and to explicitly align their current behavior to non-present situations. This is demonstrated not least in the use of propositions, i.e., sign acts that have a propositional angle, especially the assertions. The specific relation to a context, which represents a central functional requirement for assertions (⊳ modality), is usually created by a separate component in the overall sign act that forms the assertion. This act of context formation is called ‘context building’. Typical forms of context building include partial sign actions indicating that a situation in the past or future, or a hypothetical or fictitious situation is being discussed, or that a situation from the perspective of another agent is considered (more on this below). What is often linguistically called the ‘discourse universe’ of a group of people communicating with one another consists, on closer inspection, of a dynamic structure of different contexts that can be connected and nested in many different ways. On the one hand, individual sortal objects can connect the contexts via their spatiotemporal development. On the other hand, embedding relationships exist when one context can be reached from another context, i.e., can be derived from it. The immediate utterance situation usually represents the starting point for context formations that embed other contexts in them in such a way that the communication partners cannot only refer to objects in either the current or the embedded context (⊳ Nomination). Rather, they are also able to establish relationships between the two (or between the modes of appearance of one and the same object that are available in this manner). Figure 1: ‘Orson Welles is Alfred Hitchcock’ – example of false identity statements with two mental spaces in Fauconnier The expression ‘context building’ follows the terminology of Gilles Fauconnier, who in [Fauconnier 1985a]Fauconnier, Gilles (1985): Mental Spaces. Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. has worked out a linguistic approach to the propositional angle of verbal utterances: A ‘mental space’ designates an intentional set of objects to which one refers verbally. They are generated linguistically by so-called ‘space builders’ and can then form complex embedding structures with different types of connections between objects in different mental spaces. With this conception, Fauconnier can elegantly solve a number of difficulties that arise, among other things, in the linguistic analysis of the reference relationship for counterfactual statements and in the case of inauthentic statements of identity (see Fig. 1). Context building and context referencing The act of context building actually has two subtypes. On the one hand, a (partial) sign act can bring an independently accessible context into play: This is called context referencing. Context referencing occurs, for example, through explicit or implicit references to place and time. Even tense indications can, thus, implicitly focus on a temporally specified context, making it “accessible” from the utterance situation. On the other hand, by the (partial) sign action, a context can first and foremost be created: It is then a question of context building in the narrower sense. For example, a narrative represents a (very complex) form of context building in the narrower sense since the number of objects mentioned in it, their relationships to one another, and their development over time are not independent of the overall sign act that forms the narrative. The truth of a statement about those objects can ultimately only be determined based on the propositional angle of the sentences in the text of the narrative (relative to an assumed communication situation when the text is received; ⊳ Image reception as a communication process). The context conveyed by such context building does not simply include the set of propositions that are explicitly stated in the course of the narrated text. Rather, it is one of the contexts in which, among other things, all those proposed facts apply together with other facts that the recipients assume to be valid here (presuppositions), as well as the overall possible implicatures (deductive completeness of the situation); the mediated context is, therefore, dependent to a certain extent on the sign-actors and, thus, on the utterance situation (hermeneutic circle). A media-referencing sentence adverb, such as ‘in Uwe Johnson's novel «Anniversaries»’ is, therefore, a context referencing that refers to such a context building in the narrower sense. The same applies to references to other media, especially images and films: ‘in Leonardo da Vinci's painting «The Lady with an Ermine»’; ‘in Alfred Hitchcock's film «Vertigo»’. This suggests that context building in the narrower sense represents a fundamental communicative function of image use (⊳ modal image theory). Unsaturated or saturated context building An obvious difference between the examples of context building mentioned above is that tense indication, temporal and local sentential adverbs, and adverbial supplements with references to medial works cannot occur on their own: They are (in Frege's sense) unsaturated and require further partial sign acts, which usually carry out a proposition relative to the context built. In contrast, a narrative as a whole results in a saturated, that is stand-alone form of context building. Again, this closure can also be assumed for other media forms of context building in the narrower sense (which, as indicated above, can be referred to by verbal context referencing), especially images. Their use would then correspond to a saturated act of communication with the aim of introducing a new now jointly available (complex) context in the discourse universe of the communication partners. Nevertheless, it should be noted that such context building is generally not carried out merely as an end in itself: In principle, its primary purpose is to be able to use the newly introduced contexts as a basis for further joint action (especially talking about it). Saturated context formation is, therefore, always carried out within the framework of further communicative interactions between the participants. Propositional angle and truth in context building Since context-building acts form the basis for propositions, at least acts of context-building in the narrower sense are sign acts which themselves do not have a propositional angle since otherwise, an infinite regress would occur. Context building in the narrower sense introduces the context first of all, to which a potential propositional angle of a sign act would have to refer: Context building opens up the possibility of performing another sign (partial) action with a propositional angle in the first place. To put it differently: Since a situation does not simply correspond to a finite set of applicable states of affairs (facts), but is open to interpretation, i.e., in principle encompasses the potential for an infinite number of descriptions relative to quite different conceptual fields, it makes no sense to assume a final finite set of propositional descriptions that fully captured a context intersubjectively introduced by context building and whose propositional angle could, therefore, be conceived as the propositional angle of the (partial) context-building sign action (⊳ also Ecphrasis). Subsequently, it is also not straightforward to apply the concept of truth to context-building acts, since this concept is used as a measure of whether a fact asserted relative to a context is either deductively compatible with an accepted set of assertions about that situation (coherence theory of truth) or demonstrably (empirically) applies in the context (correspondence theory of truth). Expressive angle of context-building acts Due to the lack of a propositional angle, the expressive angle plays a particularly important role in context-building sign acts because only the self-representation of the communication participant performing a context-building action can take on the task of providing an intersubjectively available reference basis for propositions building on it. It is important to realize that it is also possible (and even inevitable in remarks about context building) to talk about situations/contexts propositionally and to refer to them nominatorily. But this also means to confront situations as objects, which again occur as objects only in certain abstract spaces (i.e. special metaphorical situations = contexts) that in turn must first be made available by an act of context-building. The act of context-building itself must therefore culminate in the self-representation thereby accomplished. In the combination of the lack of a propositional angle and the focus on self-reference, context building belongs to the proclamations or to the proclaiming part of a sign action. The expressive angle of context-building acts, in general, must obviously consist in a self-representation that can be described by the following phrase: ‘To present oneself as someone whose attention is explicitly turned to another situation’. Although the ostentatious demonstration of specific spontaneous reactions to the meant situation belongs only in the borderline case to the self-representation, the latter appears particularly clearly in it. Logical and empirical context formation One can, of course, also present oneself as one who turns in this distanced way to the current situation. However, there is a clear difference to other cases of context building: It is only possible in the current context to empirically test a concrete proposition related to the context. The sensorimotor test routines associated with the discrimination habit, which in turn is determined by the predication of that proposition, can be directly applied to the objects identified by the nominations of the proposition in the context, thus providing empirical evidence. If, for example, it is asserted that the apple in the distant kitchen at home is red-cheeked, then, because of the distance, looking at that apple and judging it for red-cheekedness is not readily possible. If, on the other hand, it is claimed that the apple here is red-cheeked, it is sufficient to look at the apple present: Our sensorimotor equipment allows us to confirm the predication or to contradict it with justification. The distanced attention to the current situation is therefore a context formation with empirical visualization : in short, empirical context formation. Contrasting with this are the context formations with merely logical visualization (in short: logical context formations): Without empirical access, the truth of an assertion relative to the context can only be assessed here in terms of coherence theory via logical compatibility with other statements about the context. [4] The distanced attention to the current situation is, therefore, a context-building act with empirical re-present-ation: in short, an empirical context-building act. This is contrasted with context-building acts with merely logical representation (in short: logical context-building acts): Here, without empirical access, the truth of an assertion relative to the context can only be judged coherence-theoretically via logical compatibility with other assertions about the context. Pictorial acts of context-building As mentioned above, adverbial complements that refer to an image can be used as context-referencing acts. For instance, the expression ‘in Picasso's «Les Demoiselles d'Avignon»’ may casually serve as opening a context for the assertion that ‘three women wear a kind of African masks’. In the absence of the image, however, the formation of the context remains purely logical. In view of the picture, however, that assertion can be decided as empirically obviously false. It is reasonable to assume that the context referencing through the reference to the image is in fact secondary to the more original context building in the narrower sense through the presentation of the image itself. Indeed, images are usually employed to present individuated objects in some kind of shared situation – a statement that also applies to novels, even if there are many other differences. In particular, in contrast to the act of purely logical context-building through a text, the pictorial context formation is at least partially an act of empirical context-building because the validity of the predications of visual features or other distinctions dependent on them can be verified more or less directly in the pictorial space. The pictorially conveyed contexts thus appear partially fused with the current behavioral situation That ‘image use is fundamentally visual-empirical context building in the narrower sense’ is, therefore, the core thesis of modal image theory. It has to be taken into account that the contexts for different types of images are formed quite differently. Piktoriale Kontext­bildung bei dar­stel­len­den Bil­dern Mit Hilfe von darstel­lenden Bildern werden in aller Regel vornehm­lich visu­elle Aspek­te mögli­cher Verhal­tenssi­tuati­onen als Kontex­te für gemein­sames sprachli­ches oder nicht-sprachli­ches Handeln zur Verfü­gung gestellt. Ana­log zur Inter­preta­tion der je aktu­ellen Erschei­nungswei­sen sorta­ler Gegen­stände im Wahrneh­mungsraum als persis­tente Indi­viduen werden auch in den durch pikto­riale Kontext­bildung in einer immer­währen­den Gegen­wart präsen­tierten Erschei­nungen Gege­benheits­weisen zeitlich-ausdau­ernder indi­vidu­eller Gegen­stände begrif­fen: Obwohl von abge­bilde­ten Gegen­ständen meist keine ande­re Gege­benheits­weisen vorlie­gen – also keine Begeg­nungen in ande­rem Kontext möglich sind – verste­hen wir sie als Gegen­stände mit Geschich­te, als Objek­te, denen wir zumin­dest im Prinzip auch in ande­ren Situ­atio­nen wieder (als densel­ben Objek­ten) begeg­nen könnten. Diese Interpretation spielt vor allem bei Abbil­dungen realer Gegen­stände eine zentra­le Rolle, etwa einem Fahndungs­foto. Gesucht wird ja nicht ein Mensch, der der Pigment­fläche des Bildträ­gers ähnelt, sondern diesem Menschen im Bildraum. Die Nomi­nation ‘dieser Mensch’ ist auf den Kontext bezo­gen, der mit dem Bild eröffnet wird. Piktoriale Kontext­bil­dung bei trompe l'œils Die Besonderheiten der speziel­len darstel­lenden Bilder vom Typ des trompe l'œils (oder des immer­siven Bildes) liegen nicht daran, dass bei der unre­flektier­ten Rezep­tion keine Kontext­bildung stattfin­det, da das Bild ja in dem Fall gar nicht als Bild erkannt wird. Tatsäch­lich handelt es sich vielmehr um eine zu gut gelun­gene und dadurch disfunk­tiona­le pikto­riale Kontext­bildung, die sowohl bei der Herstel­lung wie beim reflek­tierten Betrach­ten wieder als ganz norma­len visu­elle Kontext­bildung wirkt (⊳ Dezep­tiver und immer­siver Modus). Piktoriale Kontext­bil­dung bei lo­gi­schen Bil­dern Da mit logischen Bildern wenig­stens zum Teil etwas an sich nicht visu­ell Wahrnehm­bares präsen­tiert wird, liegt ihrer Seman­tik eine meta­phori­sche Begriffs­über­tragung vom darge­stellten Bereich in den Bereich sichtba­rer und somit bildlich direkt darstell­barer Enti­täten zugrun­de. Mithin wird eine durch pikto­riale Kontext­bildung bereit­gestell­te Verhal­tenssi­tuation als ein Modell für einen mehr oder weni­ger komple­xen nicht-visu­ellen Zusam­menhang verwen­det. Die kontext­bilden­de Funktion erwei­tert sich damit auf den an sich nicht-wahrnehm­baren Phäno­menbe­reich: Insbe­sonde­re werden auf diese Weise auch belie­bige abstrak­te Zusam­menhän­ge als eine (poten­tielle) Verhal­tenssi­tuation visu­ell erfahr­bar und inter­indi­vidu­ell empi­risch zugäng­lich (⊳ Image Schema­ta). Piktoriale Kontext­bil­dung bei Bild­zita­ten und ande­ren refle­xiv verwen­deten Bil­dern Reflexive Zeichenverwen­dungen sind allge­mein abge­leite­te Verwen­dungswei­sen (⊳ Bild in refle­xiver Verwen­dung). Das nun primä­re exemp­lari­sche Vorfüh­ren von Eigen­arten der jewei­ligen Zeichen­nutzung setzt insbe­sonde­re die eigent­liche pragma­tische Funktion des zitier­ten oder refle­xiv verwen­deten Zeichens außer Kraft. Das gilt ana­log auch für Bilder. Eine ursprüng­lich kontext­bilden­de Funktion wäre daher bei refle­xiv verwen­deten Bildern – sofern sie nicht gera­de das zu exem­plifi­zieren­de Merkmal darstellt – nicht mehr wirksam oder jeden­falls nicht mehr unmit­telbar wirksam. Gleichwohl steht dieser Verwen­dungszweck mit vielen ande­ren Aspek­ten des Bildge­brauchs in engem Zusam­menhang, so dass zwar die eigent­liche kontext­bilden­de Funktion aufge­hoben ist, da die Präsen­tation des Bildes nun einem ande­ren Zweck dient, aber einge­bettet in dieser Exemp­lifi­kation gleichwohl ein zentra­ler Faktor bleibt. Piktoriale Kontext­bildung bei un­gegen­ständ­lichen Bil­dern Der fehlende Verweis auf räumli­che Gegen­stände im übli­chen (sorta­len) Sinn setzt bei un­gegen­ständli­chen Bildern zunächst den Mecha­nismus außer Kraft, der den Bildraum als visu­ell wahrge­nomme­ne Verhal­tenssi­tuation etab­liert. Daher erscheint es auf den ersten Blick unplau­sibel, auch bei dieser Art von Bildern von Kontext­bildung als ihrer pragma­tischen Grundfunk­tion auszu­gehen. Allerdings können ungegen­ständli­che Bilder sehr gut als refle­xiv genutz­te Bilder mit nega­tiver Exemp­lifika­tion begrif­fen werden, so dass ihr Verwen­dungszweck einer­seits (infol­ge der refle­xiven Verwen­dung) ohne­hin von der grundle­genden Verwen­dung von Bildern abge­setzt wäre und mehr im Exem­plifi­zieren von Aspek­ten der Bildver­wendung besteht, nicht in der Kontext­bildung. Ande­rerseits betrifft die nega­tive Exemp­lifi­kation bei ihnen gera­de auch die nicht funkti­onie­rende Kontext­bildungs­fähig­keit, die damit wiede­rum ex nega­tivo als typisch für Bilder im Normal­fall bestä­tigt wäre. Primäre Kontext­bil­dung In anthro­polo­gischen Bildthe­orien geht es vor allem darum, die Rolle der Fähig­keit, Bilder verwen­den zu können, in den Rahmen der diffe­rentiae speci­ficae philo­sophi­scher Menschen­begrif­fe einzu­ordnen. Aus Sicht der moda­len Bildthe­orie ist daher vor allem zu klären, ob und auf welche Weise die Bildkom­petenz bereits beim Über­gang zum Begriff eines Wesens mit der Fähig­keit zur Kontext­bildung – der primä­ren Kontext­bildung – eine syste­mati­sche Funktion über­nimmt. In der Tat lassen sich gute Gründe dafür anfüh­ren, dass sich eine primä­re Kontext­bildung nicht rati­onal konzi­pieren lässt ohne die Verwen­dung mindes­tens einer Art wahrneh­mungsna­her Zeichen zu berück­sichti­gen, die als inter­indi­vidu­ell verfüg­bare Grundla­ge für die empi­rische Veran­kerung der Refe­renzfunk­tion propo­sitio­naler Sprache dient ([Schirra & Sachs-Hombach 2006b]Schirra Jörg R.J. & Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2006): Fähigkeiten zum Bild- und Sprachgebrauch . Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 54, 6. Webadresse: www.jrjs.de/Work/Papers/P06/P06-5/index.html , [Schirra & Sachs-Hombach 2011a]Schirra Jörg R.J. & Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2011): Anthropologie in der systematischen Bildwissenschaft: Auf der Spur des homo pictor. In: Meyer, S. & Owzar, A. (Hg.), Disziplinen der Anthropologie. Waxmann, Münster. Webadresse: www.jrjs.de/Work/Papers/P11/P11-1/index.html und [Schirra & Sachs-Hombach 2013a]Schirra, Jörg R.J. & Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2013): The Anthropological Function of Pictures. In: Sachs-Hombach, K. & Schirra, J.R.J. (Hg.), Origins of Pictures. Anthropological Discourses in Image Science. Halem, Köln. ). Die empi­risch-kontext­bilden­de Funktion dieser Prä-Bilder kann gleichwohl nur über eine damit verschal­tete verba­le (d.i. logi­sche) Kontext­bildung stabi­lisiert werden: Bildkom­petenz und Sprachkom­petenz gelten daher als gleichur­sprünglich und logisch von­einan­der abhän­gig. Im Zentrum dieser Abhän­gigkeit steht der Zusam­menhang zwischen dem Begriff »menta­les Bild« und der Situ­ation der primä­ren Kontext­bildung (⊳ Logi­sche Kontext­bildung und menta­le Bilder). See also: Ähnlichkeit und wahrnehmungsnahe Zeichen Bild in reflexiver Verwendung Bildanthropologie Bildrezeption als Zeichenprozeß Ekphrasis Referenz, Denotation, Exemplifikation Image Schemata Dezeptiver und immersiver Modus Interaktions-, Selbst- und Sachbezug Kontext logische Kontextbildung und mentale Bilder Mimesis Modalität Nomination Prädikation Proposition Semantik ungegenständlicher Bilder sortale Gegenstände und Individuation sprachliche Metaphern und allgemeine Metaphorologie Zeichen, Zeichenträger, Zeichensystem

Notes Literature [Fauconnier 1985a]Fauconnier, Gilles (1985): Mental Spaces. Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.[Frege 1892a]Frege, Gottlob (1892): Über Sinn und Bedeutung. Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik, 100.[Schirra & Sachs-Hombach 2006b]Schirra Jörg R.J. & Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2006): Fähigkeiten zum Bild- und Sprachgebrauch . Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 54, 6.[Schirra & Sachs-Hombach 2011a]Schirra Jörg R.J. & Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2011): Anthropologie in der systematischen Bildwissenschaft: Auf der Spur des homo pictor. In: Meyer, S. & Owzar, A. (Hg.), Disziplinen der Anthropologie. Waxmann, Münster.[Schirra & Sachs-Hombach 2013a]Schirra, Jörg R.J. & Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2013): The Anthropological Function of Pictures. In: Sachs-Hombach, K. & Schirra, J.R.J. (Hg.), Origins of Pictures. Anthropological Discourses in Image Science. Halem, Köln. Version 1: 2013 Responsible: Schirra, Jörg R.J. Editing: Sachs-Hombach, Klaus Contributions by: Joerg R.J. Schirra und Marcel Lemmes — (Note) Quote as: [Schirra 2013g-p]Schirra, Jörg R.J. (2013). Kontextbildung. (Ausg. 1). In: Schirra, J.R.J.; Halawa, M. & Liebsch, D. (Hg.), Glossar der Bildphilosophie. (2012-2026). [bildglossar.org/index.php?title=Kontextbildung]. Webadresse: bildglossar.org/index.php?title=Kontextbildung Schirra, Jörg R.J. (2013). Context-Building Acts. (Ausg. 1). In: Schirra, J.R.J.; Halawa, M. & Liebsch, D. (Hg.), Glossar der Bildphilosophie. (2012-2026). [bildglossar.org/index.php?title=Glossar-English:Context-Building_Acts].