2.3 Different ways of defining meanings: real and nominal definitions (theory)

Question 1

What are cognitive definitions?

Answer 1

Explaining what things are for to someone else (like in a classroom setting)

Question 2

Definition by ostension

Answer 2

Pointing at things with your finger

Question 3

Definition by synonymy

Answer 3

To define words by providing synonyms, in either the same language as the word being defined or in a different one.

Question 4

Definition by context

Answer 4

To situate the word in a system of wider relations. A possible definition of the verb drink, for example, would be “the kind of thing you do when you are thirsty”.

Question 5

Definition by typical exemplar

Answer 5

A list of typical examples of the definiendum.

Question 6

Definition by genus and differentia

Answer 6

It specifies the broader class to which the definiendum belongs (often called the definiendum’s genus), and then showing the distinguishing features of the definiendum (the differentia) which distinguish it from the members of this broader class.

Question 7

What is a ‘definiendum’?

Answer 7

The thing you are defining.

Question 8

What is a ‘definiens’?

Answer 8

The language you use to define that word (metalanguage)

Question 9

What are extensional definitions?

Answer 9

They are about explaining what things are, often to ourselves. E.g.: defining your own traumas or inventions.

Question 10

What are nominal definitions?

Answer 10

Definitions that indicate what the name of the word means. E.g.: “‘It’s a piece of furniture that is in the living room.”

Question 11

What is a real definition?

Answer 11

It’s the scientific way of explaining what things are.

E.g.: “Hey John, what is ‘salt’?”
“NaCI”
“What?”
“NaCI”

Question 12

You are asked to point at ‘happiness’. What are the problems with this request? Are there any more issues with this approach to definition?

Answer 12

Definition by ostension is problematic because you cannot point at abstract concepts or grammar words. Furthermore, ambiguity is a great challenge because if you pointed at a lady watering her plants, you might be pointing at the lady, the watering can or even the flowers.

Question 13

Look at the following words:
‘Happy’
‘Gay’
Do they mean the same? What is the problem with this?

Answer 13

Words can have multiple meanings that may not be completely interchangeable. For example, ‘happy’ and ‘gay’. ‘Gay’ can mean ‘happy’’ as well.

Question 14

‘Hey Snow White, can you define “mirror”?’
‘Sure! A mirror is a reflecting surface made out of glass.’
What is the problem with this definition?

Answer 14

The main issue is that if the addressee does not know what a ‘reflecting surface’ is the whole definition fails. Definition by context only works if you correctly infer the intended meaning

.

Question 15

Can you provide a list of typical exemplars of the word ‘infinity’? Why or why not?

Answer 15

No, because the word is too abstract and such a list does not exist. Also, if I don’t know the examples of the things we are defining (definiendum), the theory fails. The whole meaning depends on the addressee correctly inferring the meaning.

Question 16

Imagine I want you to provide a “genus and differentia” definition of the word “time”. What issues arise in this case?

Answer 16

If the GD definition is intended as a cognitive definition, it is ineffective because the addressee must know all the different meanings of the genus and differentia in order to correctly infer the final meaning of the definition.

GD as an extensional definition also struggles because of the inaccessible vocabulary that might not be comprehended by the addressee.

A different kind of problem affects cognitive and extensional GD definitions equally, in those cases where it is not clear that the definiendum (the object language word for which a definition is required) does belong to any broader class. Self and time are two possible examples.