Contextology is the science of the dynamics of the conversational context. Contextology formulates laws governing how the shared information states of interlocutors evolve in response to assertion. More precisely, the contextologist attempts to construct a function which, when provided with just a conversation’s pre-update context and the content of an assertion, delivers that conversation’s post-update context. Most contextologists have assumed that the function governing the evolution of the context is simple: the post-update context is just the pre-update context intersected with the content of the assertion. We argue that this assumption is wrong: not only is it false, it is also incoherent given standard contextological assumptions. Moreover, it is impossible in principle to revise it to correctly describe the dynamics of context. We conclude that there can be no science of Contextology. The laws governing the evolution of the context in response to assertion must make essential reference to the private information states of interlocutors.

语境学是会话上下文动态的科学。语境学制定了管理对话者的共享信息状态如何响应断言而演变的法律。更准确地说，上下文学家试图构建一个函数，当仅提供对话的更新前上下文和断言内容时，该函数传递该对话的更新后上下文。大多数上下文学家假设控制上下文演变的功能很简单：更新后上下文只是与断言内容相交的更新前上下文。我们认为这个假设是错误的：它不仅是错误的，而且在给定标准上下文假设的情况下也是不连贯的。此外，原则上不可能修改它以正确描述上下文的动态。我们得出结论，不可能有语境学科学。支配语境演变以响应断言的法律必须对对话者的私人信息状态进行必要的参考。