context

subject - object

, etymologically, at the nexus of the meanings of the woven and the weave. It occurs when we are not able to tell the dancer from the dance.

Exactly! . . . the shortest discrete linguistic utterance which we may properly call literature must consist of at least two words. It is a certain relationship between the words which enables language to become the medium for a form of art. I shall call this relationship 'context.' ' 'Context'' demanded a Martian, 'I thought context was who says what to whom when where and how. You said. . . ''Patience,' cautioned the Harlequin, 'It's that, too, but let's see where the word is from before jumping to hasty conclusions. 'Context' is from the past participle of the Latin contexere, 'to weave, join together.' By it I mean most basically the nexus of the woven and the weave . . .' 'I cannot tell the dancer from the dance...' quoth a Martian, 'will you please say what you mean'' '. . . the relationship by which the quantitative fact of these two words is raised to a higher, qualitative power: fiction. By 'higher' I mean no value judgment. Fact is just descriptively different from fiction (Rippere 1966: 244-5)

is not two sides of an opposition but a woven-together fabric in action in such a way that one 'cannot tell the dancer from the dance'.

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Rippere