contextswhenever

Contextswhenever is a theoretical construct used in discussions of context sensitivity in linguistics and computer science to denote a conditional assertion that remains active across multiple contexts whenever a specified condition holds.

Origin and usage: The term combines contexts and whenever. It first appears in speculative literature in the 2010s to describe cross-context entailment. There is no widely accepted formal standard, and definitions vary by author.

Semantics: A statement A is said to hold contextswhenever P within a set of contexts C if, for every sub-context c of C in which P is true, A also holds in c. In formal terms, it is a higher-order operator that propagates A across all contexts satisfying P.

Examples: In a formal model of access control, the rule contextswhenever adminFlag is true ensures that permission P holds in any context where adminFlag is true. In natural-language semantics, contextswhenever can express that a truth persists across all relevant situations governed by P.

Relation to related notions: It relates to context-sensitive rules and modal notions of possibility across contexts, as well as conditional statements; it differs from standard conditionals by requiring cross-context propagation.

See also context-aware computing, context-sensitive language, conditional logic.