What are context shifts?

A context shift is when something changes its meaning depending on where it is or who is using it.

Imagine you have a toy box full of blocks. Each block has one color, red, blue, green. Now imagine your friend comes over and says, "Let's play with the blocks!" But instead of just stacking them, they say, "Red means go, blue means stop, and green means jump." Suddenly, the same red block that was just a red block now has a new meaning, it's like a traffic light!

That’s a context shift: the same thing can mean different things in different situations.

In real life, context shifts happen all around you. Think of your favorite word or phrase, maybe "cool." When you say "I'm cool," it means you're calm and relaxed. But when your friend says, "That ice cream is cool!" they mean it’s cold. The same word has a different meaning because the context changed.

It's like how your backpack changes what it carries, sometimes books, sometimes snacks, but it's still your backpack!