Question

in pragmatics, context matters. which situation best shows this?
“can you pass the salt?” is a request, not a question about ability.
“the cat chased the dog” always means the same thing.
“run” only means moving quickly on foot.
“books are for reading” is always true.

Explanation:

Pragmatics studies the meaning of language in context. The sentence "Can you pass the salt?" is a request in a dining context (asking someone to hand over the salt), not a literal question about ability (like if one is physically capable of passing it). The other options are about semantic meaning (fixed meanings of words/phrases) rather than context - dependent meaning.

Answer:

"Can you pass the salt?" is a request, not a question about ability.