Contextual strength: the Whens and Hows of Context Effects

Highlighting the role context plays in shaping our linguistic behaviour is the major contribution of pragmatics to language research. Indeed, pragmatics has shifted the focus of research from the code to contextual inference (Carston, 2002; Sperber & Wilson, 1986/1995). It is widely agreed now that contextual information is a crucial factor determining how we make sense of utterances. The role of context is even more pronounced within a framework that assumes that the code is underspecified allowing for top-down inferential processes to narrow meanings down and adjust them to the specific context.