Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Definitional Techniques

Extensional(Denotative) definitions:
1) definition which gives meaning to a term by mentioning the group that the definiendum refers to either by pointing at them aka demonstrative(ostensive) definitions, naming them in a group(enumerative definitions), or just by indvidually naming them(definitions by subclass). Extensional definitions are used most often as a technique to create lexical and stipulative definitions.
a)Demonstrative(ostensive)definitions: the only thing needed to figure out this type of definition is by the message in what is being pointed at. An example would be, to define a "table" you would say "table" means this and this, and point at the tables. Demonstrative definitions stand apart from other types of definitions because their definiens are created some part with the action of pointing.
b)Enumerative definitions: give meaning to a word by naming those items, people, or places associated with the group being talked about. For example the term "actor" means a person such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, or Ben Affleck. The more examples given, the more satisfying this definition will be because it gives whoever is reading it a stronger affirmation, because it gives more examples to explain the definiendum.
c)Definition by subclass: gives meaning to a word by naming the subclasses of the group that the word refers to. In these types of definitions, they can be either partial or complete depending on whether or not they named all the subclasses in the group. For example "Candy" means chocolates, taffy, gum, and the like.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It is good but narrowly

Unknown said...

It nice but not broad

Unknown said...

It's good let as continue