How to echo an array in a variable in wordpress

I am trying to echo setting

    $this->settings['numberofwordsexcerpt'] = array(
        'title'   => __( 'Number of Words' ),
        'desc'    => __( 'Please enter here the number of words you want the latest posts on index to have.' ),
        'std'     => '25',
        'type'    => 'text',
        'section' => 'general'
    );

into this function in variable $word_limit

add_action('the_excerpt','limit_the_content'); 
function limit_the_content($content){
 $word_limit = $this->settings['numberofwordsexcerpt']; // HERE I AM TRYING to echo it

BUT doesn’t work, I get the error

Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context
     $words = explode(' ', $content); return implode(' ', array_slice($words, 0, $word_limit)); }

I also tried with

$word_limit = $settings['numberofwordsexcerpt'];

And i get an error related to the fact that the variable $settings is not defined…
Also tried

$word_limit = ?> <?php echo $settings['numberofwordsexcerpt']; ?> 

and get an error related to ";", tried deleting that and still error remains. Please help.