Two Crucial Linguistic Functions:

◦ Conveying Cognitive Meaning or Information: Texas has executed more inmates than any other

state. ◦ Conveying Emotive Meaning, or Feelings:

The death penalty is a cruel and inhuman form of punishment.

Smuggling Value Claims into Emotive Terminology:

◦ This is a claim that something is good, bad, right,

wrong, better, worse, more important, or less important than some other thing.

The death penalty is bad because innocent people have been executed.

Two Ways Cognitive Meaning Can Be Defective: ◦ Vagueness:

Vague expressions often allow for a continuous range of interpretations.

“Love” is an example of such an expression. ◦ Ambiguity:

Ambiguous expressions are those that can be interpreted as having more than one clearly distinct meaning in a given context.

A “light” beer may be light in taste, color, or calories.

The Concept of a Term: Any Word or Arrangement of Words That May Serve as the Subject of a Statement

◦ Examples are: Proper names such as Napoleon Common names, such as animal Descriptive phrases, such as “first president of

the United States”

Intensional Meaning and Connotation:◦ Consists of the qualities or attributes that the

term connotes. Extensional Meaning and Denotation:

◦ Consists of the members of the class that the term denotes.

Increasing and Decreasing Intension:

◦ Increasing intension is when each term in the series (except the first) connotes more attributes than the one preceding it.

◦ Each term in the series after the first is more specific than the one preceding it.

◦ Decreasing intension is the reverse of this order.

Increasing and Decreasing Extension:

◦ Increasing extension is when each term in a series (except the first) denotes a class having more members than the class of the term preceding it.

◦ In other words, the class size gets larger with each successive term.

◦ Decreasing extension is the reverse of this order.

A definition is a group of words that assigns a meaning to some other word or group of words.

◦ The definiendum is the word or group of words that is supposed to be defined.

◦ The definiens is the word or group of words that does the defining.

Stipulative Definitions: Assigning a Meaning to a Word for the First Time

◦ Stipulative definitions are often created in response to some new phenomenon or development.

◦ Examples are “tigon” for the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion, and “liger” for the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger.

Lexical Definitions: Reporting a Meaning That a Word Already Has in a Language

◦ Dictionary definitions are all lexical definitions; they often have multiple definitions.

◦ Lexical definitions help eliminate the ambiguity in words that have multiple definitions, such as “light.”

Precising Definitions: Reducing the Vaguenes

◦ Defining “poor” as “having an annual income of less than $10,000 and a net worth of less than $20,000” is a precising definition.

Theoretical Definitions: Assigning Meaning Based Upon a Scientific or Philosophical Theory

◦ “Heat” means the energy associated with the random motion of the molecules of a substance.

Persuasive Definitions: Engendering an Attitude

◦ This is done by assigning an emotional or value-

laden meaning to a word while making it appear that the word really has (or ought to have) that meaning in the language in which it is used.

Extensional Definitions are chiefly used as techniques for producing lexical and stipulative definitions.

◦ Demonstrative definitions differ from the other kinds of definitions in that the definiens is constituted at least in part by a gesture—the gesture of pointing.

◦ Enumerative definitions assign a meaning to a term by naming the members of the class the term denotes. “The Baltic states are Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.”

◦ Definitions by subclass assign meaning to terms by naming subclasses of the class denoted by the term. “Tree” means an oak or, pine, elm or spruce, and so on.

Intensional (Connotative) Definitions assign a meaning to a word by indicating the qualities or attributes that the word connotes.

◦ Synonymous definitions are those in which the definiens is a synonym of the word being defined. An example is “ ‘Physician’ means ‘doctor’.”

◦ Etymological definitions assign meanings to words by disclosing the word’s ancestry in both its own language and other languages. An example is the English word “captain,” which derives from the Latin noun caput, meaning head.

◦ Operational definitions assign meanings to words by specifying certain experimental procedures that determine whether or not the word applies to a certain thing.◦ An example is that one stone is “harder than” another

if and only if it scratches the other when the two are rubbed together.

◦ Definition by genus and difference assigns a meaning to a term by identifying a genus term and one or more difference words that, when combined, convey the meaning of the term being defined. ◦ An example would be that “wife” means married

woman.

Can Produce This Type of DefinitionThis Technique

Stipulative

Lexical

Precising

Theoretical

Persuasive

Demonstrative Yes Yes No (Unusual) (Unusual)Enumerative Yes Yes No (Unusual) (Unusual)Subclass Yes Yes No (Unusual) (Unusual)Synonymous No Yes No No NoEtymological Yes Yes No No NoOperational (Limited) Yes Yes (Unusual) (Unusual)Genus and Difference

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

1. Conform to proper grammatical standards◦ Grammar is the bones of language, a structure that

greatly contributes to the whole.

2. Convey essential meaning ◦ If you define “human” as a featherless biped, then

apes and monkeys may also be defined as human.

3. Be neither too broad nor too narrow◦ Your definition of “bird” should exclude bats, which

are mammals, and include ostriches, which cannot fly.

4. Avoid circularity◦ Makeup is a product used by people to make

themselves up.

5. Be affirmative (where possible)◦ Normally you would say that “‘Concord’ means

harmony,” but you can use conventional usage for such definitions: “ ‘Dark’ is the absence of light.”

6. Avoid figurative, obscure, vague or ambiguous language

◦ Camels are a species of mammal, not “ships of the desert.”

7. Avoid affective terminology, such as sarcasm and facetiousness

◦ “Theism” means belief in that great Santa Claus in the sky.

8. Indicate proper context◦ “Strike” means different things in the contexts

of baseball, bowling, fishing, and war.