Is there a word for when someone refers to something but only with context that they have? [closed]
If someone says one of the following. Is there a word to describe this where the person asking doesn't provide context in to something they are referring to?
- I need help with my website, the images don't load - (What website are they talking about?)
- I need a new fan belt for my car - (What make/model of car?)
- I need a new screen for my phone - (What make/model of phone?)
I was thinking that 'contextual' may fit, but I am unsure if this is correct.
If I were to talk to someone in a pub, and were to say that my car broke down because it needs a new fan belt, I wouldn't feel inclined to specify the make or model. When I talk to the mechanic who will be fixing the car, and most likely will need to order the correct part, that information is very much relevant.
This is called contextual relevance, and it depends not just on the context of the communicator, but equally depends on the audience. I suppose one could refer to information that is omitted because it is not deemed contextually relevant as being "contextually irrelevant".
The owner of a broken car can be safely assumed to know the make and model. Same goes for someone who broke his or her phone. Maybe the person they're speaking with just can't do anything with the added information. It may be irrelevant to the overall conversation, it may be meaningless to the other person, and most importantly: including all information regardless of its contextual relevance just isn't practical.
Compare the following:
I wrote this answer on my desktop, I did search the term "contextual relevance", but I remember it from my uni days.
As opposed to:
I wrote this answer in 1 of 14 chrome browser tabs, using a Model M keyboard, connected to my Threadripper 2990wx, 64GB RAM workstation running Fedora 34. I used one of the other 13 tabs to double-check the term "contextual relevance", even though I remembered it from my days back at uni. I studied Dutch and English, then journalism at a University in mainland Europe roughly 15 years ago. After a short stint as a freelance journalist, I switched careers to software engineering, something I've been doing in my spare time since the age of 9...
Considering the context (this being a site about specific questions relating to the English language), most of my life story is pretty pointless information. It is not contextually relevant, adds noise, and obfuscates the actual message that one would want to convey.
Clear communication should be concise, bordering on succinct.
The website/car/phone was unspecified.
You usually tailor your level of specificity according to several factors.
unspecified (adj.)
Not named or stated explicitly: not specified
An unspecified location m-w
Not stated clearly or exactly. Lexico
It is a small car of unspecified make. James Zemboy; The Detective Novels of Agatha Christie
The listener knows which items have been left unspecified, because sentences have a defined grammatical structure with certain slots to be filled, e.g. subject, lexical verb, time adverbial. Andreas Fischer; Repetition
In other words, some participants were asked to predict their reactions to a generic event whose details were unspecified (dinner at a restaurant), whereas others were asked to predict their reactions to a well-specified event (wine-braised short ribs with roasted root vegetable and parsley coulis at Jardiniere next Tuesday at six). L. F. Barrett and P. Salovey; The Wisdom in Feeling
Thus there is an enormous and ever-expanding demand for an unspecified, fuzzy notion of what healthcare should take under its wings. Derek Steinberg; Complexity in Healthcare and the Language of Consultation
Of course, a poorly specified working model may still provide a summary measure that is uninformative or misleading... Asian Development Bank; Implementing Results-Based Budget Management Frameworks
specificity
The quality or condition of being specific. m-w
Whenever we make reference, we choose a level of specificity that is appropriate in context. ...
What governs the default level of specificity? The default level of referring expressions is usually at the basic level of categorization. Anything can be referred to at various levels of specificity. A piano can be referred to at the superordinate level, musical instrument, at the subordinate level, grand piano, or at an intermediate level, piano. The intermediate level is commonly known as the basic level..., a level that usually suffices for conversational reference that is neither overly general nor overly specific. Sam Glucksberg; Understanding Figurative Language
In this case, instrumentalities of a specified crime were sought. Some could be described with great specificity; others could not. U.S. v. Cook
The list of topics deemed in need of protection might grow long or short, and its contents might be elaborated with greater or lesser specificity—length and specificity being roughly synonymous with hard times for the press. Daniel Moran; Toward the Century of Words
Statement made by teachers may differ in the degree of specificity. P. M. Denicolo and M. Kompf; Teacher Thinking Twenty Years on