USING DEFINITIONS AS A TEACHING TOOLS

“What is it?” “What’s its purpose?” “What’s its function?” These are three of the many common questions we ask and are asked, daily, questions which seek definition of an unknown in our world. The unknown may be concrete and tangible, such as a chair, bear or hair, or abstract and exceedingly difficult to pin down to a precise, agreed-upon meaning, such as beauty, goodness and time.

So, think about it a minute: When are definitions useful? First of all, in dictionary work. In weaning low-intermediate students away from classroom translation and bi-lingual dictionaries, they need to be given tools to use English words to understand new English words. Then too, definitions help clarify thinking and writing. It is a tremendous aid to communication, when terms are defined and mutually understandable.

We often loosely use the term “meaning” for “definition” but there is an important difference: Whereas a definition is the way you explain what is understood by a word, a meaning is the factual, physical and emotional significance of something (a word, experience, event, etc.). It’s the difference between explaining and interpreting.

There are several types of definitions. Beginning with the SIMPLE DEFINITION and the many forms it takes, through the OPERATIONAL DEFINITION and finally, to the LEXICAL DEFINITION. Good, simple definitions focus on the questions “What is it?” and “What isn’t it?” They must meet two basic criteria: i) they are exclusive and apply only to the term being defined and, ii) they are true. At times a good synonym is all we may need to define a term.

Simple Definitions

1. SYNONYMS
big = large

2. ANTONYMS
big = not small

3. DESCRIPTION
gossip = talk about other people

4. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
beret = a circular flat hat, usually made of wool

Operational Definitions “What something does” “How it works”

5. PURPOSE DESCRIPTION
a mouse = a mechanism for moving a computer cursor around on the screen

6. COMBINATION DESCRIPTION
jogging = running slowly for exercise

Lexical Definitions often include etymology, word history, etc.

The logical scheme of definition writing places the term in a class or category, then goes on to define the distinguishing characteristics.

Some of the definitions below describe the object physically, (square), operationally (dentist), and some a combination (caffine). Would you be able to improve on some of these, adding for instance, a purpose or functional dimension to “human being”? Do you question any of the general classifications used? After presenting this material to a class, there is plenty of room for discussion and an opportunity to check with various English-English dictionaries to see how they chose to define these terms.

Now, here is a chance to recreate this chart on the blackboard or on handouts (maybe for homework or a group exercise) to challenge students to workout similar definitions of their own for the following (or other) words:

In writing assignments, defining a thing or concept may be part of a larger composition used to make sure readers understand the terms used. This is especially helpful when the terms used are not in the reader’s vocabulary or when terms may be understood quite differently by different audiences. For example, “cotton” has a general meaning for the non-specialist, but to a botanist “a plant used to make cloth” could also refer to flax. In addition, British usage calls “cotton” the thread made from this fiber, while Americans call a “soft mass of this material for cleaning wounds” by the term “cotton.”

Another type of definition, a STIPULATIVE DEFINITION is also used in writing. Here the writer goes beyond a general definition and specifies a certain additional meaning for the term, usually based on the writer’s own experience. E.B. White’s short essay “Democracy” illustrates this kind of definition well:

We received a letter from the Writers War Board the other day asking for a statement on “The Meaning of Democracy.” . . .

Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of pri-vacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.

July 3, 1943

So, this type of definition lends itself well in writing about such topics as teenagers, common sense, family, exercise, basketball, and hometown. The adding of personal details, images and figurative language enriches the portrait of the word or concept being defined.

On the other hand, dynamic descriptive writing frequently requires OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS. Henry David Thoreau observed that we can define writing as a deed or as the record of a deed. If we choose to define writing as a deed then we are focusing on what it does rather than what it is. Harold Brodkey writing on “Reading, the Most Dangerous Game” calls it an “intimate act, perhaps more intimate than any other human act.” He is referring to the prolonged and intense “exposure of one mind to another” and the level of mind dealing in feelings and hopes.

Brodkey continues his piece published in the New York Times Book Review in 1985 by saying that reading a book is similar to a love affair, to love. “One can marry the book: reread it, add it to one’s life, live with it.” He then suggests another metaphor – pregnancy – explaining:

one is inside the experience and is about to be born; and one is carrying something, a sort of self inside oneself that one is about to give birth to, perhaps a monster.

Later in the piece, he returns to the theme of love and reading:

I learned very early that when you were infatuated with someone, you read the same books the other person reads or you read the books that shaped the other person or you committed an infidelity and read for yourself and it was the beginning of trouble. I think reading and writing are the most dangerous human things because they operate on and from that part of the mind in which judgements of reality are made; and because of the authority language has from when we learn to speak and use its power as a family matter . . . (ultimately) establishing our rank in the world.

And finally, there are EXTENDED DEFI-NITIONS which build on a simple definition but develop and explore the more subtle and interesting aspects of a topic to make a fuller explanation. Though technically correct then, the simple definition for these purposes remains incomplete. Here is the outline of a student essay asking “What Is a Wife?” to demonstrate how extended definitions utilize several forms of definition to create a holistic picture.

Conclusion: Webster’s definition of a wife is too impersonal. In addition to being a married woman, a wife must also be a friend, partner, lover and possibly a mother.
How could your students write about other family members, friends, teachers or colleagues? What about topics such as “the good life”, “vacation”, “a dog”, “church”, or “the telephone”. All of these could easily be extended by personalizing them, what they mean in one’s own life.

All these approaches to defining and definitions offer ways to extend students’ understanding of semantics and using words to describe things, roles, events, feelings and actions. Work in this area helps train precise thinking and focus, which is an excellent foundation for writing compositions or giving a prepared talk. It can be used with any type of lexical work but, of course, concrete nouns and action, verbs are the easiest to find language to define. At the same time, abstract nouns lend themselves well to operational or extended definitions.

Games

And, finally, it is very fruitful to begin with definitions to elicit vocabulary. This can be done in a game mode at the end of a class period or as a review of new vocabulary at the beginning for warm-up. I like very much the definitions in NTC’s BEGINNER’S DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH USAGE which was published in Russia in 1991. The lexis is limited and the definitions are refreshing and imaginative. I usually give my lower intermediate students the first letter because the definitions themselves indicate the part of speech and students should learn to listen to this information. I read out the definition and usually the students guess orally (but you could also have students write down their guesses). Here is a sample:

1. A main part of an animal/a person (not including head, arms and legs)
2. Event in which bands play while marching down a street
3. Moving in the water, using your arms and legs to push you along
4. Belonging to us
5. Not to be sure of something
6. To make something which has never been made before
7. Sweet food made from seeds of a tree
8. Suggestion about what should be done
9. To make two people husband and wife
10. Movement in a circle
11. Sharp knife or small machine for cutting off the hair on your face
12. Small cloth used to protect your clothes and wipe your mouth when eating
13. To go past like a liquid
14. To make someone happy
15. Extra/ which is added
16. To say that you will not do something; not to accept
17. Not wanting to do any work
18. To stop something which might harm
19. Person whom you have never met; person in a place where he has never been before.
20.Things which you need to do something.

These could also be used to construct a crossword, by the students or teacher, or, beginning with the words, have students write definitions for crosswords they make.

Answer Key:

1. body; 2. parade; 3. swim; 4. our; 5. doubt; 6. invent; 7. chocolate; 8. advice; 9. marry; 10. turn; 11. razor; 12. napkin; 13. flow; 14. amuse; 15. more; 16. refuse; 17. lazy; 18. protect; 19. stranger; 20. equipment

Selections from the devil’s dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

Born in 1842 on a poor farm in Ohio, Ambrose Bierce was the youngest of nine children. As a boy he enlisted, as a drummer in the Union Army at the outbreak of the American Civil War, was twice wounded, cited for bravery and ended his military career as a major. After the war he chose the profession of journalist, went to California and there edited a San Francisco newspaper.

Bierce married in his late twenties, spent four years writing in England and then returned to San Francisco and remained there the next twenty-five years. He wrote fantastic fiction, newspaper columns and various pieces to support his wife and three children, but his serious short stories could find no publisher. His life grew difficult as his wife left him and he lost two sons, one was shot and the other died an alcoholic. At age seventy-one, Bierce headed for Mexico either to become a revolutionary or to report on the rebel’s activities. He became a legend with tales of his recklessness appearing in the press. One report had him killed in 1916 in a battle under the banner of Pancho Villa. It was also said that he was seen alive ten years later, living under another name.
The caustic epigrams that he wrote for The Devil’s Dictionary capture his skeptical nature and show that his witticisms are always pointed, and the point is usually tipped with poison.

ACQUAINTANCE, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
ADMIRATION, n. Our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.
BIGOT, n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.
BOSS, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
BRAIN, n. The apparatus with which we think.
BRIDЕ, n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.
COWARD, n. One who in a perilous emer gency thinks with his legs.
DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one’s country.
DISCUSSION, n. A method of confirming others in their errors.
EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
IMMIGRANT, n. An unenlightened person who thinks one country is better than another.
MARRIAGE, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making, in all, two.
RELIEF, n. Waking up early on a cold morning to find that it’s Sunday.

By Erin Bouma