Firth's theory of meaning hinges on the notion of context.He refuses to accept that words and nces can have meanings in and by themselves and firmly believes that "the complete meaning of a word is always contextual, and no study of meaning apart from a complete ontext can be taken seriously". 2 2 Firth was deeply influence by Malinowski's ethnographic studies of language, context and culture. This relationship between language and clements of the situation was systematic for Firth. Eirth is noted for drawing attention to the context-dependent nature of meaning with his notion of "context of situation.