[lit-ideas] What Do Ostensive Definitions Define?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 13:25:31 EDT
In a message dated 5/30/2004 1:39:44 AM Eastern Standard Time,
Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx quotes from Wittgesntein:
"[32] 'Someone coming into a strange country will sometimes learn the
language of
the inhabitants from ostensive definitions that they give him; and he will
have
to _guess_ [shades of Quine!] the meaning of these definitions; and he will
guess sometimes right, sometimes wrong."
I would guess Wittgenstein took the notion of 'ostensive definition' from
Johnson?
Johnson is the first cite given by the OED for that collocation. (Johnson
was professor of logic at Cambridge).
I guess Wittgenstein identified the idea of 'ostension' with his own
preferred idea of 'show' (rather than 'tell' or 'say': 'If you cannot tell,
_show_").
One may wonder, with K. Amis -- cited in the OED's entry below -- what
'ostensive definitions' define, though and _how_ -- or what the defininiens and
the definiendum are.
Once, someone tried to define (ostensively) the meaning of Tamil, "je'rog!"
and failed -- Why? Which are the ways ostensive definitions can go wrong?
Wittgenstein's idea that to define ostensively 'x' you must know what _to do_
with the referent of 'x' seems pretty restrictive, if Heideggerian.
Cheers,
JL
----
From the OED
'ostensive'
ostensive definition
(Philos.), the explanation of a word by pointing at or otherwise indicating,
or by presenting, one or more objects to which it applies.
Cites:
1921 W. E. JOHNSON Logic I. vi. 94
We may now introduce the technical term â??ostensiveâ?? which will suggest as
its opposite the familiar term â??intensiveâ??... Imposing a name in the act
of
indicating, presenting or introducing the object to which the name is to
apply,..this it is that constitutes ostensive definition.
1940 A. J. AYER Found. Empirical Knowl. ii. 88
This is effected by the method of ostensive definition.
1950 R. ROBINSON Definition ii. 15 â??Ostensive definitionâ?? is the name of a
method, the method that makes use of pointing or physical introduction.
1953 I. M. COPI Introd. Logic iv. 108 An ostensive definition refers to the
examples by means of pointing or some other gesture.
1960 K. AMIS New Maps of Hell (1961) i. 21
One might under adverse conditions learn a human language, by ostensive
definition and the like.
1968 J. LYONS Introd. Theoret. Linguistics ix. 409 Ostensive definition, of
itself, is never sufficient.
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