kontextkänsliga

Kontextkänsliga is an adjective in Swedish meaning context-sensitive. It is used across disciplines to describe phenomena whose interpretation, behavior, or applicability depends on surrounding context, as opposed to context-free phenomena. The term appears in linguistics, computer science, cognitive science, and information technology, among others.

In linguistics, kontextkänsliga processes require information from neighboring elements to determine form or meaning. Examples include morphophonemic alternations where a morpheme’s pronunciation changes depending on adjacent sounds, syntactic agreement patterns influenced by surrounding words, and anaphora resolution where the interpretation of a pronoun depends on the discourse context. In phonology, context-sensitive rules may trigger assimilation or allomorphy based on surrounding phonemes.

In theoretical computer science, kontextkänslig grammar refers to a context-sensitive grammar, a formal grammar with production rules that apply only in a given left and right context. These rules have the form αAβ → αγβ, where the context α and β enables the replacement of nonterminal A by γ. The length of the string never decreases in the application of these rules. Context-sensitive grammars generate context-sensitive languages and are more expressive than context-free grammars, yet less powerful than unrestricted grammars, often leading to more demanding parsing tasks.

In computing and information systems, kontextkänslig also describes context-aware or context-dependent behavior, such as access control, user interfaces, or software functionality that adapts to factors like location, user role, or prior actions. See also context-sensitive, context-free, context-aware computing.