[rz2k]

I don’t disagree with your point, but aren’t there languages that do take into account the context in which functions are called in addition to the parameters and namespaces?

Both R and Perl seem like ones where it wouldn’t be extremely strange for the function to also look back to the context of the calling function. Then it could find out if the two parties had an affinity for this person, and whether it was a conversation about something like figuring out an excuse to miss a party or one like finding a gift in order to which Bob.