According to semiotics, language is the mere manipulation and
use of symbols in order to draw attention to signified content.
Philosophy of Language is the reasoned inquiry into the origins of
language, nature of meaning, the usage and cognition of
language, and the relationship between language and reality.
conceptual meaning (which refers to the definitions of words
themselves, and the features of those definitions, which can be
treated using semantic feature analysis).
associative meaning (which refers to the individual mental
understandings of the speaker, and which may be connotative,
collocative, social, affective, reflected or thematic).
Idea theories: these theories claim that meanings are purely
mental contents provoked by signs.
Truth-conditional theories: these theories hold meaning to be the
conditions under which an expression may be true or false.
Use theories: these theories understand meaning to involve or be
related to speech acts and particular utterances, not the expressions
themselves.
Verificationist theories: these theories associate the meaning of a
sentence with its method of verification or falsification.
Pragmatist theories: these theories maintain that the meaning or
understanding of a sentence is determined by the consequences of
its application.
Terminology that conveys information is said to have cognitive
meaning, and terminology that expresses or evokes feelings is said to
have emotive meaning . value claim is a claim that something is
good, bad, right, wrong, or better, worse, more important or less
important than some other thing meaning.
A linguistic expression is said to be vague if there are borderline
cases in which it is impossible to tell if the expression applies or does
not apply.
An expression is said to be ambiguous when it can be interpreted as
having more than one clearly distinct meaning in a given context .
The difference between ambiguity and vagueness is that vague
terminology allows for a relatively continuous range of
interpretations, whereas ambiguous terminology allows for multiple
discrete interpretations. In a vague expression there is a blur of
meaning, whereas in an ambiguous expression there is a mix-up of
otherwise clear meanings.
Disputes that arise over the meaning of language are called verbal
disputes, disputes arise over a disagreement about facts, and these
are called factual disputes.
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.
Words are usually considered to be symbols, and the entities they
symbolize are usually called meanings.
The intensional meaning consists of the qualities or attributes that
the term connotes, and the extensional meaning consists of the
members of the class that the term denotes.
The conventional connotation of a term includes the attributes that
the term commonly calls forth in the minds of competent speakers
of the language.
They are said to denote the empty (or null) class, the class that has
no members.
The fact that some terms have empty extension leads us to an
important connection between extension and intension- that
intension determines extension.
Increasing intension: animal, mammal, feline, tiger
Increasing extension: tiger, feline, mammal, animal
Decreasing intension: tiger, feline, mammal, animal
Decreasing extension: animal, mammal, feline, tiger
we may define definition as a group of words that assigns a meaning
to some word or group of words.
The definiendum is the word or group of words that is supposed to
be defined, and the definiens is the word or group of words that
does the defining.
A stipulative definition assigns a meaning to a word for the first time.
This may involve either coining a new word or giving a new meaning
to an old word. The purpose of a stipulative definition is usually to
replace a more complex expression with a simpler one, there can be
no such thing as a ‗‗true‘‘ or ‗‗false‘‘ stipulative definition.
Lexical Definitions This definition is used to report the meaning that
a word already has in a language, , a lexical definition may be true or
false depending on whether it does or does not report the way a
word is actually used, it is also used to remove the ambiguity in the
meaning of the word.
The purpose of a précising definition is to reduce the vagueness of a
word, A précising definition differs from a stipulative definition in
that the latter involves a purely arbitrary assignment of meaning,
whereas the assignment of meaning in a précising definition is not at
all arbitrary.
A theoretical definition assigns a meaning to a word by suggesting a
theory that gives a certain characterization to the entities that the
term denotes, not all theoretical definitions are associated with
science, Like stipulative definitions, theoretical definitions are
neither true nor false.
The purpose of a persuasive definition is to engender a favorable or
unfavorable attitude toward what is denoted by the definiendum.
This purpose is accomplished by assigning an emotionally charged or
value-laden meaning to a word while making it appears that the
word really has (or ought to have) that meaning in the language in
which it is used.
Techniques of Definition
4.1 an extensional definition is one that assigns a meaning to a term
by indicating the members of the class that the definiendum
denotes.
1 Demonstrative (Ostensive) Definitions are probably the most
primitive form of definition. All one need know to understand such a
definition is the meaning of pointing. Such definitions may be either
partial or complete, depending on whether all or only some of the
members of the class denoted by the definiendum are pointed to.
2 Enumerative Definitions assign a meaning to a term by naming the
members of the class the term denotes. Like demonstrative
definitions, they may also be either partial or complete. Complete
enumerative definitions are usually more satisfying than partial ones
because they identify the definiendum with greater assurance.
However, relatively few classes can be completely enumerated.
3 Definition by Subclass assigns a meaning to a term by naming
subclasses of the class denoted by the term. Such a definition, too,
may be either partial or complete.
4.2The Intensional (Connotative) Definitional Techniques
1 synonymous Definition is one in which the definiens is a single
word that connotes the same attributes as the definiendum- that the
definiens is a synonym of the word being defined.
2 Etymological Definition assigns a meaning to a word by disclosing
the word‘s ancestry in both its own language and other languages.
3 Operational Definition assigns a meaning to a word by specifying
certain experimental procedures that determine whether or not the
word applies to a certain thing.
4 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.
Lesson 5: Criteria for Lexical Definitions
Rule 1: A Lexical Definition Should Conform to the Standards of
Proper Grammar.
Rule 2: A Lexical Definition Should Convey the Essential Meaning of
the Word Being Defined.
Rule 3: A Lexical Definition Should Be Neither Too Broad nor Too
Narrow.
Rule 4: A Lexical Definition Should Avoid Circularity.
Rule 5: A Lexical Definition Should Not Be Negative When It Can Be
Affirmative.
Rule 6: A Lexical Definition Should Avoid Figurative, Obscure, Vague,
or Ambiguous Language.
Rule 7: A Lexical Definition Should Avoid Affective Terminology.
Rule 8: A Lexical Definition Should Indicate the Context to Which the
Definiens Pertains.
