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Ostensive Definition
An ostensive definition conveys the meaning of a term by pointing out examples. This type of definition is often used where the term is difficult to define verbally, either because the words will not be understood (as with children and new speakers of a language) or because of the nature of the term (such as colors or sensations). It is usually accompanied with a gesture pointing to the object serving as an example, and for this reason is also often referred to as " definition by pointing". Overview An ostensive definition assumes the questioner has sufficient understanding to recognize the type of information being given. Ludwig Wittgenstein writes: So one might say: the ostensive definition explains the use—the meaning—of the word when the overall role of the word in language is clear. Thus if I know that someone means to explain a colour-word to me the ostensive definition "That is called 'sepia' " will help me to understand the word.... One has already to know (or be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meaning (linguistic)
Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction between sense and reference. Sense is given by the ideas and concepts associated with an expression while reference is the object to which an expression points. Semantics contrasts with syntax, which studies the rules that dictate how to create grammatically correct sentences, and pragmatics, which investigates how people use language in communication. Lexical semantics is the branch of semantics that studies word meaning. It examines whether words have one or several meanings and in what lexical relations they stand to one another. Phrasal semantics studies the meaning of sentences by exploring the phenomenon of compositionality or how new meanings can be created by arranging words. Formal semantics relies on logic and mathematics to provide precise framewor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comprehension (logic)
In logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ..., the comprehension of an object is the totality of intensions, that is, attributes, characters, marks, properties, or qualities, that the object possesses, or else the totality of intensions that are pertinent to the context of a given discussion. This is the correct technical term for the whole collection of intensions of an object, but it is common in less technical usage to see 'intension' used for both the composite and the primitive ideas. See also * Extension * Extensional definition * Intension * Intensional definition Concepts in logic Definition {{Logic-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pragmatics
In linguistics and the philosophy of language, pragmatics is the study of how Context (linguistics), context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the interpreted. Linguists who specialize in pragmatics are called pragmaticians. The field has been represented since 1986 by the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA). Pragmatics encompasses phenomena including implicature, speech acts, relevance theory, relevance and Conversation analysis, conversation,Mey, Jacob L. (1993) ''Pragmatics: An Introduction''. Oxford: Blackwell (2nd ed. 2001). as well as nonverbal communication. Theories of pragmatics go hand-in-hand with theories of semantics, which studies aspects of meaning, and syntax, which examines sentence structures, principles, and relationships. The ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning is called ''pragmatic competence''. In 1938 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure of arguments alone, independent of their topic and content. Informal logic is associated with informal fallacies, critical thinking, and argumentation theory. Informal logic examines arguments expressed in natural language whereas formal logic uses formal language. When used as a countable noun, the term "a logic" refers to a specific logical formal system that articulates a proof system. Logic plays a central role in many fields, such as philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics. Logic studies arguments, which consist of a set of premises that leads to a conclusion. An example is the argument from the premises "it's Sunday" and "if it's Sunday then I don't have to work" leading to the conclusion "I don't have to wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Word Learning And The Embodied Mind
A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its definition and numerous attempts to find specific criteria of the concept remain controversial. Different standards have been proposed, depending on the theoretical background and descriptive context; these do not converge on a single definition. Some specific definitions of the term "word" are employed to convey its different meanings at different levels of description, for example based on phonological, grammatical or orthographic basis. Others suggest that the concept is simply a convention used in everyday situations. The concept of "word" is distinguished from that of a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of language that has a meaning, even if it cannot stand on its own. Words are made out of at least one morpheme. Morphemes can al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ostension
Ostension is the act of showing or demonstrating something. In communication In communication theory and especially in relevance theory, ''ostensive behaviour'' or ''ostension'' is a behaviour that signals the intention to communicate something. This can be a gesture such as pointing, or shifting position to draw an addressee's attention to something.Sperber, Dan; Wilson, Deirdre. Relevance. pp 29, 49. Verbal communication (the act of speaking or writing something) is also ostensive behaviour, as it draws the addressee's attention to the fact that the communicator intends to convey some information. This is called the ''communicative intention''. By contrast, the ''informative intention'' is the intention to convey said information, i.e. the actual content of the message. In folklore The term ''ostension'' is also used by those who study folklore and urban legends to indicate real-life happenings that parallel the events told in pre-existing and well-established legends and lore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intension
In any of several fields of study that treat the use of signs—for example, in linguistics, logic, mathematics, semantics, semiotics, and philosophy of language—an intension is any property or quality connoted by a word, phrase, or another symbol. In the case of a word, the word's definition often implies an intension. For instance, the intensions of the word ''plant'' include properties such as "being composed of cellulose (not always true)", "alive", and "organism", among others. A '' comprehension'' is the collection of all such intensions. Overview The meaning of a word can be thought of as the bond between the ''idea the word means'' and the ''physical form of the word''. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) contrasts three concepts: # the ''signifier'' – the "sound image" or the string of letters on a page that one recognizes as the form of a sign # the ''signified'' – the meaning, the concept or idea that a sign expresses or evokes # the ''referen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extensional And Intensional Definitions
In logic, extensional and intensional definitions are two key ways in which the objects, concepts, or referents a term refers to can be defined. They give meaning or denotation to a term. An intensional definition gives meaning to a term by specifying necessary and sufficient conditions for when the term should be used. An extensional definition gives meaning to a term by specifying every object that falls under the definition of the term in question. For example, in set theory one would extensionally define the set of square numbers as , while an intensional definition of the set of the square numbers could be . Intensional definition An intensional definition gives meaning to a term by specifying necessary and sufficient conditions for when the term should be used. In the case of nouns, this is equivalent to specifying the properties that an object needs to have in order to be counted as a referent of the term. For example, an intensional definition of the word "bachelor" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exemplification
Exemplification, in the philosophy of language, is a mode of symbolization characterized by the relation between a sample and what it refers to. Description Unlike ostension, which is the act of showing or pointing to a sample, exemplification is possession of a property plus reference to its label (Goodman, 1976). For example, if a color sample has the property labelled 'green', then the color sample exemplifies green. At its most basic, possession of a property amounts to being correctly referred to by its label. In other words, an entity, 'x' can be said to possess a certain property if and only if: (1) there can be an abstract singular term which denotes that property, and (2) those assertions are true which predicate such an abstract term of a name or phrase denoting x. A mode of reference Reference is the relation between something "standing for" something else, like the relation between a word and what it denotes. Usually reference goes in one direction, from the word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enumerative Definition
An enumerative definition of a concept or term is a special type of extensional definition that gives an explicit and exhaustive listing of all the objects that fall under the concept or term in question. Enumerative definitions are only possible for finite sets and only practical for relatively small sets. Example An example of an enumerative definition for the set extant monotreme species (for which the intensional definition is "species of currently-living mammals that lay eggs") would be: : platypuses : echidnae: :: short-beaked echidna :: long-beaked echidnae: ::: Sir David's long-beaked echidna ::: eastern long-beaked echidna ::: western long-beaked echidna See also * Definition * Extension * Extensional definition * Set notation * Enumeration An enumeration is a complete, ordered listing of all the items in a collection. The term is commonly used in mathematics and computer science to refer to a listing of all of the element (mathematics), elements of a Set ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Ernest Johnson
William Ernest Johnson, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (23 June 1858 – 14 January 1931), usually cited as W. E. Johnson, was a British philosopher, logician and economic theorist.Zabell, S.L. (2008"Johnson, William Ernest (1858–1931)"In: Durlauf S.N., Blume L.E. (eds) ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics.''(2nd ed, 2008.) Palgrave Macmillan, Londoalso online He is mainly remembered for his 3 volume ''Logic'' which introduced the concept of Exchangeable random variables, exchangeability. Life and career Johnson was born in Cambridge on 23 June 1858 to William Henry Farthing Johnson and his wife, Harriet (''née'' Brimley). He was their fifth child. The family were Baptists and political liberals. He attended the Llandaff House School, Cambridge where his father was the proprietor and headteacher, then the The Perse School, Perse School, Cambridge, and the Liverpool Royal Institution School. At the age of around eight he became seriously ill and developed severe as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Definition
A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definitions (which try to list the objects that a term describes).Lyons, John. "Semantics, vol. I." Cambridge: Cambridge (1977). p.158 and on. Another important category of definitions is the class of ostensive definitions, which convey the meaning of a term by pointing out examples. A term may have many different senses and multiple meanings, and thus require multiple definitions. In mathematics, a definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, by describing a condition which unambiguously qualifies what the mathematical term is and is not. Definitions and axioms form the basis on which all of modern mathematics is to be constructed. Basic terminology In modern usage, a definition is something, typically expressed in words, that at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
