CHAPTER THREE

LOGIC AND LANGUAGE

Chapter three
Compiled by: :Logic and Language
Mohammed Z.
 “To construct, analyze, and evaluate arguments well, one
must pay close attention to language. Many errors of logic
stem from a careless or imprecise use of language, and many
misunderstandings about logic stem from misunderstandings
about the nature of language.” L. Wittgenstein

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 OUTLINE
• Functions of languages
• Types of definitions
• Techniques of definition
• Criteria for lexical definitions

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 Functions of language
• we take our language for granted. Seldom do we give careful and proper
attention to use and application of language.
• With language :
• we plan the day’s events,
• curse the television,
• exclaim our surprise or frustration (“Damn!”),
• express pain (“Ouch!”),
• scribble reminders on scraps of paper,
• record our thoughts and feelings in diaries and journals,
• recall past conversations and events,
• talk to ourselves in anxious moments, pray, wonder, and worry etc.
• Thought and language create our world, and so to think critically about the
world we must pay careful attention to words—the words we choose.

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 Principal functions of language:
• Cognitive function: Terminology that conveys
information is said to have cognitive meaning.
E.g. The death penalty, which is legal in thirty-six states, has been carried
out most often in Georgia; however, since 1977 Texas holds the record for
the greatest number of executions.
• Emotive function: terminology that expresses or
evokes feelings is said to have emotive meaning.
E.g. The death penalty is a cruel and inhuman form of
punishment in which hapless prisoners are dragged from their
cells and summarily slaughtered only to satiate the bloodlust of
a vengeful public. There are other principal functions of languages which are not
common in logic . Namely: directive, performative and phatic.
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 Two points must be noted with regard to emotive meanings:
• First, since logic is concerned chiefly with cognitive meaning, it is
important that we be able to distinguish and disengage the
cognitive meaning of such statements from the sheer emotive
meaning.
• The second point is that we must be able to substantiate value
claims with reason and evidence.
• A value claim is a claim that something is good, bad, right, wrong,
or better, worse, more important or less important than some other
thing.
Note that context often determines the purpose of an utterance. "The room is cool" might be used in
different contexts: as informative (an observation), expressive (how one feels at the moment), or directive (to
turn on the heat).
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 Vague and ambiguous expressions.
• Thinking critically and arguing effectively often depend on
recognizing imprecise language.
• Ambiguous or vague language often interferes with clear thinking.
• A word is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning. For
example, in the statement “He lies in this grave,” the word “lie”
might mean either tell a falsehood or be prostrate on a horizontal
surface, that is, “lie down.”
• A word is vague if there are borderline cases in which there is no
way to determine whether the word applies. For example, how
much does a person have to have in the way of material
possessions to count as rich?

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 Verbal and factual disputes
• Disputes that arise over the meaning of
language are called verbal disputes. The
dispute concerns ambiguity or vagueness.
• Disputes that arise over factual state of matter
in the phenomenal world are factual type of
disputes

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 • a verbal dispute, which occurs when people appear to disagree on an issue but
in actuality have simply not resolved the ambiguity of a key term.

• Suppose two people were asked the same question: “Is the suspect arrested
last night guilty of the crime?” The first person answers, “No, a person is
innocent until proven guilty.” The second person disagrees: “I say he is guilty; he
confessed when he was picked up.” There is really no disagreement here on
whether the suspect committed the crime; the first person is defining guilt in a
legal sense (the suspect hasn’t been convicted yet), and the second is defining it
to mean that the suspect did the crime of which he or she is accused.

• If someone claims, without further elaboration, that on average “men are more
powerful than women,” we would have no way of assessing the claim because
powerful has several meanings; and whereas one of those meanings (physical
strength) may be defensible, the others may not be.
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 • A factual dispute, on the other hand, occurs when opponents
disagree not over the meanings of words but over the relevant facts.
Person A might say, “That man did not commit the crime; he has an
alibi.” Person B might respond, “He did commit the crime; I saw him
do it.

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 Classify the following words as vague or ambiguous
• Rich
• happy
• Bank
• Light
• Normal
• Excess
• Right
• Sure
• Mode
• bald
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 Identify the ambiguous word or phrase in each argument, and succinctly describe the double
meaning involved.

1. People nowadays say they can’t believe in religion. They say they can’t believe in miracles. Is it that
they can’t believe or that they don’t want to believe? they believe in the miracles of modern science,
don’t they? they do. They believe in vaccines, space-walks, and heart transplants. They believe in fiber
optics, laser surgery, and genetic engineering. They can believe in miracles, all right. They just don’t
want to believe in religious miracles.
2. We are in the dark because the light bulb burned out. But if we are in the dark, then we are
ignorant. Therefore, we are ignorant.
3. john is crazy. He will do anything to get a laugh! Of course, if he is crazy, then he should be put in a
mental hospital. So, john should be put in a mental hospital.
4. sacred texts says you need faith, but lots of people disagree with those texts. Unfortunately, these
people just aren’t thinking straight. The fact that you go out to your car in the morning shows you
have faith it’s going to start. And the fact that you pull out of the driveway shows you have faith the
car won’t fall apart on the way to work. Everybody needs faith.
5. A crust of bread is a better than nothing. Nothing is better than love. So, a crust of bread is better
than love.
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 Terms as the ultimate constituent part of an argument
• A term is a word or group of words that can serve as the
subject of a statement.
• Terms includes nouns and descriptive phrases; it doesn’t
include verb, adverb, conjunctions and prepositions.
• All terms have two folds of meanings: intensional meaning (
connotation), and extensional meaning (denotation).
• The intensional meaning of a term consists of the attributes
that the term connotes, and the extensional meaning
consists of the members of the class that the term denotes.

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 • Sometimes the denotation of a term can change radically with the
passage of time.
• Some terms have empty extension, but no term have empty intension.
• The fact that some terms have empty extension leads us to an
important connection between extension and intension—namely, that
intension determines extension. The intensional meaning of a term
serves as the criterion for deciding what the extension consists of.
• Terms may be put in the order of increasing intension, increasing
extension, decreasing intension, and decreasing extension.
• A series of terms is in the order of increasing intension when each
term in the series (except the first) connotes more attributes than the
one preceding it, and vice versa.
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 Definitions and their purposes

• A definition is a group of words that assigns a meaning to a

word or group of words.
• Every definition consists of two components parts:
definiendum and definiens.
• The definiendum is the word or group of words being
defined.
• The definiens is the word or group of words that does
the defining.

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 Types of Definition
1. Stipulative definition-
2. lexical definition.
3 precising definition.
4. theoretical definition.
5. persuasive definition

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 Stipulative Definitions
• If you’ve ever created a new word or used an old word in an entirely new way,
you have provided a stipulative definition; that is, you tell your readers or
listeners what it is you mean by the term.
• A stipulative definition is among the most subjective of definitions because the
definition is one you have determined.
• a stipulative definition cannot be true or false, though it can, of course, be more
or less fitting or appropriate.
• Writers frequently stipulate definitions when they give labels to cultural trends,
political movements, schools of thought, and so forth.
• scientists and technologists often stipulate definitions when they make new
discoveries or invent new products.
• Stipulative definitions rarely create problems unless a writer fails to explain
clearly that he or she is coining a new word or using an old word with a new
meaning.
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 Persuasive Definitions
• Another kind of subjective definition is a persuasive definition, in which an arguer defines a term
in an effort to persuade a reader or listener to agree with the arguer’s point of view regarding the
thing being defined. Persuasive definitions usually contain emotional appeals and
slanted/loaded/charged terms and are often given in arguments over highly charged political and
social topics on which people have firm views.

• Here are two examples:

1. Capital punishment means the state-sanctioned, vengeful murder of helpless

prisoners.

2. Capital punishment means the infliction of appropriate punishment on

vicious cowards who have no regard for life.
Each of these is a slanted, “loaded” definition, whose point is not to provide an objective, neutral
definition of capital punishment but to persuade the audience to adopt the speaker’s particular
attitude toward the death penalty.
Note that persuasive definitions are not intrinsically wrong. There is nothing in an attempt to persuade others. However , if our attitude is
somehow immoral and inappropriate, trying to persuade others may leads to punishment, blame, or milder forms of criticism
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 Lexical Definitions
• Less personal definitions include lexical definitions and precising definitions.
• In a lexical definition, a word is defined in the way it is standardly used in the
language. In other words, the purpose of a lexical definition is to state the
conventional, dictionary meaning of a word.

• Here are two examples:

1. Pastel means a color having a soft, subdued shade.
2. Rug means a heavy fabric used to cover a floor.
• The second definition accurately states how most people in the United States
define rug. In England, however, rug can also mean a type of blanket used to
cover the legs while a passenger sits in a car or train. Notice that the definition of
rug reflects its general usage, not one person’s use of the word.

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 precising definition
• A precising definition is intended to make a vague word more precise so that the
word’s meaning is not left to the interpretation of the reader or listener. Here are
two examples:

1. From a class syllabus: “Class participation” means attending class, listening

attentively, answering and asking questions, and participating in class discussions.

2. A “heavy smoker,” for purposes of this clinical trial, is anyone who smokes
more than twenty-four cigarettes per day.

• In general usage, terms like class participation and heavy smoker are vague. In
these examples, they are given comparatively precise meanings to permit clearer
understanding and more accurate assessment.

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 Theoretical Definitions
The term theory has several meanings, two of which concern us here.

• In one sense, theory refers to a general approach to, or belief about, some subject
matter that is expressed in a set of interrelated statements concerning the nature
of the subject. In this sense, we can speak of a theory of justice. A theory of justice
might include such statements as “Justice requires that all persons be treated
similarly under similar circumstances,” “Justice requires that individuals in a
society be given equal opportunities and access to the good things in that society,”
or “Justice demands that punishments should be tailored to the nature of the
offense.
• A second sense of theory refers to scientific theories—that is, to sets of general,
but not vague, interrelated statements about the nature of society or the physical
world that are subject to testing and proof.

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 • Frequently, scientists take a term from ordinary language, or from another theory,
and redefine it for some new theoretical purpose .

• theoretical definitions are similar to precising definitions in that both reduce

vagueness. However, in addition to reducing vagueness, theoretical definitions
connect the term being defined with other terms in the theory.

• Two things must be noted about theoretical definition: firstly, they have got
deeper and wider meaning as compared to lexical one. Secondly, is they are
interrelated statements about the subject matter being discussed.

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 Definitional strategies/techniques
• There are two types of techniques : intensional and
extensional.

Extensional (Denotative) techniques

• An extensional definition is one that assigns a
meaning to a term by indicating the members of the
class that the definiendum denotes.

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 Ostensive Definitions
Sometimes the simplest way to explain the meaning of a word is to give an
ostensive definition, which consists in simply pointing to, or demonstrating,
the thing being defined. Here are two examples:

1. Door means this. (as you point to one for the benefit of a foreign
visitor)

2. Obelisk means this as you point to an obelisk means this! (as you
demonstrate to a particular obelisk)

Ostensive definitions are often useful (indeed indispensable) in various

contexts, but they have obvious limitations.
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 Enumerative Definitions
• Another simple way to clarify what you mean by a word is to use an enumerative
definition, that is, to provide specific examples of what the word refers to. For
example, to help someone understand the meaning of baseball player, you might list
some famous baseball players: Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle. To
define river you could mention the Nile, the Mississippi, the Thames, and so forth.

• The trouble with enumerative definitions is that they tend to be incomplete, and
hence may give rise to misunderstandings or convey only a very limited
understanding of what the word means. For example, your list of baseball players
might give the impression that baseball player is synonymous with Yankee.
Sometimes it is possible to provide a complete list of a word’s referents (Low
Countries means Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands), but even these may
not be very useful if the reader or listener is unfamiliar with the things being
enumerated (Diencephalon means thalamus, hypothalamus, epithalamus, and
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ventral thalamus)
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 Definitions by Subclass
A definition by subclass assigns a meaning to a word by listing subclasses of the general
class to which the word refers. Two examples:

1. Mammal means gorilla, horse, lion, whale, and so forth.

2. Poem means sonnet, limerick, haiku, epic, ode, and the like.

• Definitions by subclass are similar to definitions by enumeration in that both attempt

to clarify the meaning of a word by illustrating what the word refers to; however,
whereas definitions by enumeration list individual things signified by a word,
definitions by subclass list entire classes or categories .

• Although often helpful, definitions by subclass suffer from the same shortcomings as
definitions by enumeration. They can give rise to misunderstandings (our list of
mammals might lead someone to think all mammals are large), and they are helpful
only if one is broadly familiar with the classes that are named.
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 Intensional (Connotative) techniques

• An intensional definition is one that assigns a meaning to a

word by indicating the qualities or attributes that the word
connotes.

• There are at least four kinds of intensional definitions:

synonymous definition, etymological definition, operational
definition, and definition by genus and difference.

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 Synonymous Definitions
A synonymous definition assigns a meaning to a word by offering a synonym—that is,
another word that has the same meaning as the word being defined. Two examples:

1. Loquacious means talkative.

2. Deleterious means harmful.

• Synonymous definitions can be helpful in many contexts. The confusion caused by

technical jargon, for example, can be lessened if the jargon is accompanied by a
synonymous definition.
• A trainer carpenter might be puzzled to hear about a chisel’s “bezel” until he or
she discovers that the bezel is more commonly known as the “bevel” or even
more commonly as the “edge,” or imprecisely as the “point.”
• Speaking among themselves, teachers might use words like “assessment” or
“inventory.” When speaking to parents, teachers might refer instead to “tests.”
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 Etymological definition
• A good dictionary tells what part of speech a word is, how it is
commonly pronounced, and whence it came—its ancestry, or
etymology.
• Because the meaning of words can change over time, knowing a
word’s etymology is quite useful. Etymological definition helps us
define the word correctly and use it properly.
• For example, some people say “ambivalent” when they really mean
to say “apathetic” (unconcerned). Ambivalent comes from the Latin
word for “both” ( ambi -) and “vigor” ( valentia ); so, to be ambivalent
is to feel strongly both ways. Apathy comes from the Latin prefix a,
meaning “not,” and from the Greek pathos, meaning “suffering” or,
more common, “feeling.” So, to be apathetic is to lack feeling. You
might feel ambivalent about abortion, but you are probably not
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 Etymological definitions have special importance for at least two
reasons.
• The first is that the etymological definition of a word often
conveys the word’s root meaning or seminal meaning from
which all other associated meanings are derived.
• The second reason for the importance of etymological
definitions is that if one is familiar with the etymology of one
English word, one often has access to the meaning of an entire
constellation of related words.

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 operational definition

An 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. Examples:
1. One substance is ‘‘harder than’’ another if and only if one scratches
the other when the two are rubbed together.
2. A subject has ‘‘brain activity’’ if and only if an electroencephalograph
shows oscillations when attached to the subject’s head.
3. A ‘‘potential difference’’ exists between two conductors if and only if
a voltmeter shows a reading when connected to the two conductors.
4. A solution is an ‘‘acid’’ if and only if litmus paper turns red when
dipped into it.

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 • Operational definitions are invented in an attempt to understand
abstract concepts on the basis of empirical ground and experimental
evidences. They are successful, in some respect.
Operational definition has got two limitation:
• Firstly, operational definitions usually convey only part of the
intensional meaning of a term. Certainly ‘‘brain activity’’ means more
than oscillations on an electroencephalograph, just as ‘‘acid’’ means
more than blue litmus paper turning red.
• Secondly, applying operational definition outside the framework of
science is severely difficult and impossible. Words as ‘‘love,’’
‘‘respect,’’ ‘‘freedom,’’ and ‘‘dignity.’’ cant be defined operationally.

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 Definition by Genus and Difference
• One of the most useful strategies for defining terms is to
define by genus and difference, a method that
lexicographers (dictionary writers) often use to create
definitions.
• A definition by genus and difference assigns a meaning to a
word by identifying a general class (genus) to which things
named by the word belong and then specifying a
differentiating quality (difference) that distinguishes those
things from all other things in the class. Two examples:
1. Buck means male deer.
2. Calf means young cow.
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 • The ‘‘specific difference,’’ or ‘‘difference,’’ for short, is
the attribute or attributes that distinguish the various
species within a genus.
• It should be noted that one limitation of the genus
and difference method is that it can be used to define
a word without capturing the true essence of the
thing that is defined.
• Definition by genus and difference is the most
effective of the intensional definitions for producing
the five kinds of definitions.
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 Criteria for Lexical Definitions

Rule1: A Lexical Definition Should Conform to the Standards of Proper Grammar

Rule2: 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/slanted/loaded Terminology
Rule 8: A Lexical Definition Should Indicate the Context to Which the Definiens
Pertains

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 A lexical definition should conform to the standards of proper
grammar
• the definiendum should be put in quotation marks or italics
• The definition should clearly state the species, the genus and the
differentia.
1. Correct: “Vacation” means a periods during which activity
is suspended from work or school
2. Incorrect: Vacation is when you don’t have to go to work or
school.
• The second definition doesn’t clearly state the genus term.
So, it is grammatically erroneous.

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 Don’t make the definition too broad or too narrow.
• A definition is too broad if it includes too much and is too
narrow if it includes too little. A good definition applies to all
and only the things being defined.
• A definition of automobile as “a vehicle with four wheels”
would be too broad because it would include golf carts and
lawn mowers. A definition of sibling as “brother” would be
too narrow because it fails to include sisters.

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 Don’t make the definition negative when you can make it
affirmative
• A Lexical Definition Should Not Be Negative When It Can Be
Affirmative - Of the following two definitions, the first is
affirmative, the second negative:
1. ‘‘Concord’’ means harmony. - correct
2. ‘‘Concord’’ means the absence of discord. - incorrect
• Some words, however, are intrinsically negative. For them, a
negative definition is quite appropriate. Examples:
1. ‘‘Bald’’ means lacking hair.
2. ‘‘Darkness’’ means the absence of light.
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 Convey the essential meaning of the word being defined.
• A good definition should do more than just pick out some uniquely
identifying properties of the thing being defined.
• Defining horse, for example, as “the animal ridden by Napoleon
during the battle of Waterloo” is clearly a poor definition, even
though the defining expression does apply uniquely to horses.
• The problem with the definition is that it fails to capture the really
important and necessary properties that make horses horses, rather
than, say, cows or sheep.
• Expressing the essential meaning of a word can be very difficult and
often requires specialized knowledge.

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 Provide a context for ambiguous words.
• Many words are ambiguous; that is, they have two or more distinct
meanings. For example, a “walk” in baseball is different from a “walk”
in the park.
• To prevent confusion, therefore, a good definition should indicate the
context in which an ambiguous word is being used.
• we might say, “‘Walk’ means (in baseball) an award of first base to a
batter who receives four pitched balls that are outside the strike zone
and are not swung at by the batter.”

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 Avoid slanted definitions.
• Don’t let personal preferences or attitudes interfere with
your definition. Avoid slanted definitions—that is, biased or
emotionally charged definitions that improperly play on the
emotions or attitudes of an audience.

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 Avoid figurative definitions.
A good definition should express clearly the conventional
meaning of a word, not be couched in figurative or
metaphorical language. Consider these examples:
1. Slot machine means one-armed bandit.
2. Advertising means legalized lying.
3. Religion means the flight of the alone to the Alone.
“Definitions” such as these may have their place (they may be
humorous or clever, for example); but if a straightforward
definition is in order, such figurative language should be
avoided.
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 Avoid needlessly obscure definitions.
• A good definition should clarify the meaning of a
word for someone who may be unfamiliar with the
term. Thus, a definition should not include a lot of big
words or technical jargon that readers aren’t likely to
understand. For example:
1. Mouse means a quadrupedal mammalian of any of
the more diminutive species of the genus Mus of
the order Rodentia.
• For people not trained in biology, this definition is
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 Avoid circular definitions.
• A circular definition is one that uses the term(s)
being defined-definiendum-as a part of the definines with
no or little modification.
1. Entomologist means someone who engages in
the science of entomology.
2. Gambler means someone who gambles
• Such definitions are likely to be unhelpful because
the defining phrases are just slight variants of the
words being defined.
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 Exercise
Match column A with column B
Column A
1. ‘‘Pen’’ means an instrument used for writing on paper.
2. ‘‘Triangle’’ means a figure composed of three straight lines in which all the angles
are equal to 180.
3. ‘‘Elusory’’ means elusive. .
4. “A theist” is anyone who is not an atheist or an agnostic.
5. “Feminism” is a militant movement originated by a group of deviant women for
the purpose of undermining the natural distinction between the sexes.
6. ‘‘Truculent’’ is if you’re cruel or fierce.
7. “A house” is a structure made of wood or stone intended for human habitation.
8. ‘‘Strike’’ means a pull on a line made by a fish in taking the bait.

Column B

A. Too broad
B. Fail to indicate the context
C. Toot narrow
D. Affective
E. negative
F. Circular
G. Ambiguous
H. Bad grammar
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