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Jasinski, James. Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in Contemporary Rhetorical Studies. Sage Publications Inc, 2001. 153-155.
Strategies for Defining Terms (Summary)
Some common strategies for defining terms:
- Stipulative: “A stipulative definition provides an operational account of how the term is going to be used in a particular context…Stipulative definitions, in and of themselves, do not always possess rhetorical or persuasive force. Other definitional strategies might be necessary as either a supplement (functioning as a form of backing for the stipulative definition) or a substitute.”
- Condensed: “A condensed definition attempts to locate the “essential elements” that reside in the various common definitions or a term…common elements are taken to represent the “essence” of (a term) and serve as the basis for a definition that could either (a) provide backing for the original stipulative definition or (b) function as an alternative.”
- Authoritative: “Authoritative definition establishes the meaning of a term through reference to its meaning for accepted social and/or political authorities (hence, this strategy is a form of the argument from authority.”
- Etymological: “Etymological definition employs the history of a term’s meaning as a resource for defining it in the present.”
- Dissociative: “A dissociative definition ‘claims to furnish the real true meaning of the concept as opposed to its customary or apparent usage’” (p. 444).”
- Negation: “In some cases, it might be difficult to to specify, in a positive sense, the meaning of a term or concept but relatively easy to identify its antithesis or opposite. So, we then proceed to define the term by reference to it negative…the advocate can elaborate on (the) opposite (of a term), thereby indicating the semantic range of (a) term.”
- Metaphorical: “Lakoff and Johnson maintained that our understanding of concepts such as “happiness” proceeds by way of structural metaphors (p. 118). The metaphorical structuring, or the act of defining, is visible in Jefferson’s expression; happiness is something to be pursued or acquired. By unpacking the metaphorical entailments of the metaphor ‘happiness is an acquisition,’ the dynamic meaning of the concept can be reconstructed.”
“The various definitional strategies can be combined in different ways”:
- “As Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) noted, an advocate can support a dissociative definition through appeal to ’scientific or popular etymology’ (p. 448).”
- “Lakoff and Johnson (1980), on the other hand, suggested that metaphorical definitions of concepts are widespread. Therefore we might locate implicit structural metaphors within other definitional strategies.”
- “Advocates frequently try to show that the use of a particular term by the opposition contributes to the process of mystification or distortion…to both justify and obscure.”
- “Finally, it is important to note that the discursive processes through which terms are defined and redefined are not always explicit. The explicit definitional strategies noted previously do not encompass all of the ways in which discourse is used to define terms and concepts.”
- “Burke (1950), among others, noted how many terms are inherently ‘dialectical‘; that is, their meanings or definitions are established by way of contrasts with what the terms stand against (a variation on the explicit strategy of definition by negation)…In other cases, the meanings or definitions or terms are crafted through a double contrast. Aristotle, for example, defined the virtues (e.g. courage) as the midpoint between extremes (middle ground argument as an implicit definitional strategy).”
- “Meanings are also established and subverted through a host of subtle discursive moves including forms of inflection, accent (Voloshinov, 1986), and “tonalities” (Burke, 1950). In short, the meaning of a term is continually shaped and reshaped by the company it keeps.”
(boldface mine, except for on the word “mystification”, italics in original)
