Context as a Spurious Concept

TL;DR

This paper critiques existing formalizations of context in AI, arguing that natural language context is constructed by speakers and interpreters, making it impossible to have a universal, primitive formalization.

Contribution

It challenges the notion of a universal formalization of context, emphasizing the constructed and discretionary nature of natural language context.

Findings

No coherent universal theory of context exists

Natural language context is constructed by speakers and interpreters

Pre-defined context formalizations cannot capture real-world language use

Abstract

I take issue with AI formalizations of context, primarily the formalization by McCarthy and Buvac, that regard context as an undefined primitive whose formalization can be the same in many different kinds of AI tasks. In particular, any theory of context in natural language must take the special nature of natural language into account and cannot regard context simply as an undefined primitive. I show that there is no such thing as a coherent theory of context simpliciter -- context pure and simple -- and that context in natural language is not the same kind of thing as context in KR. In natural language, context is constructed by the speaker and the interpreter, and both have considerable discretion in so doing. Therefore, a formalization based on pre-defined contexts and pre-defined `lifting axioms' cannot account for how context is used in real-world language.