contextualist

English

Etymology

From contextual +‎ -ist.

Adjective

contextualist (not comparable)

1. Of, pertaining to, or supporting contextualism

Noun

contextualist (plural contextualists)

1. A proponent of contextualism, or the importance of context.
   • 2007 April 29, Christopher Gray, “A Man Who Minds His P’s and Q’s”, in New York Times‎:

     He is more of a contextualist, believing that “letters are fluid, that they change with time and circumstance — the entire word is more important than a single letter, and its form can fluctuate.”

2. (pragmatics) One who believes that scalar implicatures arise from contextual inference, not from a default association with a word.

   Antonym: defaultist

   A contextualist believes that the phrase "some eels are fish" is primarily interpreted as "some, and perhaps all, eels are fish", and the pragmatic interpretation "some, but not all, eels are fish" only appears when demanded by the context.