Chapter Three

Language :Meaning and Definition

 Contents
• Cognitive Meaning and Emotive Meaning
• Vague and Ambiguous Meaning
• The Intension and Extension of Terms
• Definitions and Their Purposes
•Types of Definitions
• Definitional Techniques
• Criteria's for Lexical Definitions (Reading
Assignment)
 Cognitive Meaning and Emotive Meaning

•language serves tremendous functions. Among other

things, language is used to

• ask questions tell jokes

• guess at answers sing songs

• form hypothesis issue commands

•The two linguistic functions are particularly important:

1. to convey information 2. express or evoke feelings
Examples
1. The death penalty, which is legal in thirty-six states, has been carried out
most often in Georgia; however, since 1977 Texas holds the record for the
greatest number of executions.
2. The death penalty is cruel and inhuman form of punishment in which
hapless prisoners are dragged from their cells and summarily slaughtered
only to satiate of a vengeful public.
• The first – Conveys an information while the second evokes a feeling.
•Terminology that conveys information is said to have Cognitive Meaning, and
terminology that expresses or evokes feelings is said to have Emotive
Meaning.
•Part of the cognitive meaning of emotively charged statements is a value claim.
•Disputes can center on a confusion of cognitive meanings between the
disputants.

•Disputes that center on the meaning of a word are called verbal disputes.

•And disputes that center on a matter of fact are called factual disputes.
Examples
•BRENDA: I'm afraid that Smiley is guilty of arson. Last night he confided to me that
he was one who set fire on the old schoolhouse.

•WARREN: No, you couldn't be more mistaken. In this country no one is guilty until
proven so in a court of law, and Smiley has not yet even been accused of anything.

•Verbal dispute – ‘guilty’

Vagueness Vs. Ambiguity
 The Intension and Extension of Terms
• A term is any word or arrangement of words that may serve as the subject

of a statement.

•
Terms consist of proper names, common names, and descriptive phrases.

• verbs, non-substantive adjectives, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions,

conjunctions, - not terms
• Intensional meaning/ Connotation - consists of the qualities or attributes
that the term connotes.
• Extensional meaning/ Denotation - consists of the members of the class
that the term denotes.
• “Intension” and “extension” are roughly equivalent to the more
modern terms “sense” and “reference,” respectively.
• Example: Cat and Inventor
•conventional connotation.

•Empty extension

•Example: Increasing intension: Animal. Mammal, Feline, Tiger

Decreasing intension: Tiger, Feline, Mammal, Animal

Increasing extension: Tiger, Feline, Mammal, Animal

• Decreasing extension: Animal. Mammal, Feline, Tiger

 Definitions and Their Purposes

• Definition - a group of words that assigns a meaning to some word or group of

words.
• Definiendum:- is the the word or group of words that is supposed to be defined.
•Definiens:- is the word or group of words that does the defining.

•E.g. “Tiger” means a large, stripped, ferocious feline indigenous to the jungles of India
and Asia.
• Definitions are intended exclusively to explicate the meaning of words.
Types of Definitions

1) Stipulative Definition:
• Assigns a meaning to a word for the first time.
• It may involve either coining a new word or giving a new meaning for an old word.
•Purpose

1. usually to replace a more complex expression with a simpler one often triggered
by some new phenomenon.

•E.g. tigon (to designate offspring of male tiger and female lion), liger (to designate
male lion and female tiger)

2. to set up secret codes particularly in military areas

E.g. “Operation Barbarosa” Germans’ invasion of Russia.

“Operation Desert Storm” Us military invasion of Iraq

“Operation Sunset”

• Stipulative definition cannot be evaluated as true or false since it is a completely

arbitrary assignment of a meaning to a word for the first time.
2) Lexical Definition

• Used to report the meaning that a word already has in a language.

• Dictionary definitions are all instances of lexical definitions

• Purpose - eliminating the ambiguity of a word.

• A lexical definition may be true or false depending on whether it does or does not
report the way a word is actually used
3) Precising Definitions

• Involves those definitions that want to make a limitation or precision for concepts that
are broad.

• Purpose - reduce the vagueness of a word

4) Theoretical Definition

• Provides a theoretical picture or characterization of the entity or entities denoted by the

• e.g. “heat” means the energy associated with the random motion of the molecules of
a substance.
• Many terms in philosophy, such as “substance,” ‘form,” ‘cause,” “God,” have been
given theoretical definitions.

5) Persuasive Definition

Purpose - to engender a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward what is denoted by

the definiendum.
• This is accomplished by assigning an emotively charged or value-laden meaning to
a word while making it appear that the word really has that meaning in the language
in which it is used.
The objective of a persuasive definition is to influence the attitudes of
the reader/listener.

e.g. 1. “Abortion” means the ruthless murdering of innocent human

being.

2. “Abortion” means a safe and established surgical procedure

whereby a woman is relieved of an unwanted burden.
Definitional
Technique
Extensional/Denotative
• Demonstrative
• Enumerative
• By subclass

Intensional/Connotative
• Synonymous
• Etymological
• Operational
• By genus & difference
i. Demonstrative (Ostensive) Definitions are probably the most primitive form of definition.
Demonstrative definition can be either partial or complete.
•The most limited.

•The gesture of pointing.

ii. Enumerative Definition: assigns a meaning to a term by naming the members of the class the term
denotes.
And this may be either partial or complete; but it is difficult to enumerate all and which have no
names.
•e.g. “Planet” means one of the following: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune,
Uranus, or Pluto.

iii) Definition by subclass: assigns a meaning to a term by naming subclasses of the class denoted by the term.
May also be either partial or complete; but complete definitions by subclass are often difficult.
•e.g. “Flower” means a rose, lily, daisy, geranium, zinnia, and the like.

• “Tree” means an oak, pine, elm spruce, eucalyptus, maple, and the like.

• “Fictional work” means either a poem, a play, a novel, or a short story.

 Intensional (Connotative) Definitions

•An intensional definition is one that assigns a meaning to a word by indicating the
qualities or attributes that the word connotes. Four strategies may be used to indicate
the attributes a word connotes.

A) A synonymous Definition is one in which the definiens is a single word that connotes the
same attributes as the definiendum; the definiens is the synonym of the word being defined.
•Examples: “Physician” means doctor.

• “Observe” means see

• “Intentional’ means willful.

B) Etymological Definition assigns a meaning to a word by indicating the word's ancestry in

both its own language and other languages. It has special importance for:
The etymological definition of a word often conveys the word's root/seminal meaning from
which all other associated meanings are derived.
• If one is familiar with the etymology of one English word, one often has
access to the meaning of an entire constellation of related words.
Examples: 1. The word “orthodox” derives from the two Greek words ortho,
meaning right or straight, and doxa, meaning belief or opinion.

2. The word “principle” derives from the Latin word principium, which
means beginning or source.

C) Operational Definition: assigns a meaning to a word by specifying

certain experimental procedures that determines whether or not the word
applies to a certain thing. But they involve certain deficiencies.
Examples: 1. A solution is an “acid” if and only if litmus paper turns red when dipped into
it.

2. A subject has ‘brain activity” if and only if an electroencephalograph shows

oscillations when attached to the subject’s head.

D) A 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.
• In logic, genus simply means a relatively larger class and species means a relatively
smaller subclass of the genus.
•Examples: Species Difference Genus

• Daughter means female offspring.

• Husband means married man.

 Criteria for Lexical Definitions
•Rule 1: A Lexical Definition Should Conform to the Standards of Proper Grammar.

• Incorrect : 1. Vacation is when you don’t have to go to work or school.

2. Furious means if you’re angry at someone.

• Correct: ‘1. ‘Vacation’’ means a period during which activity is suspended from work or
school.
2. “Furious’’ means a condition of being angry.

•Rule 2: A Lexical Definition Should Convey the Essential Meaning of the Word
Being Defined.

•E.g. ‘‘'human’’ means “featherless biped”

• ‘‘human’ means the animal that has the capacity to reason and to speak.’’
•Rule 3: A Lexical Definition Should Be Neither Too Broad nor Too Narrow.

•Rule 4: A Lexical Definition Should Avoid Circularity.

• e.g. “Science’’ means the activity engaged in by scientists.

• “Scientist’’ means anyone who engages in science.

•Rule 5: A Lexical Definition Should Not Be Negative When It Can Be Affirmative.

• E.g. “Concord’’ means harmony.

• “Concord’’ means the absence of discord.

•Rule 6: A Lexical Definition Should Avoid Figurative, Obscure, Vague, or

Ambiguous Language.

•Rule 7: A Lexical Definition Should Avoid Affective Terminology.

 • e.g.: “Communism’’ means that ‘‘brilliant’’ invention of Karl Marx and other
foolish political visionaries in which the national wealth is supposed to be held in
common by the people.

•Rule 8: A Lexical Definition Should Indicate the Context to Which the Definiens
Pertains.