Define this, Define that...

The definition of words…a topic I love, and am so glad we get a chance to explore it in our weekly posts in class. Words are my forte, my chance to express myself and to make others understand exactly what goes on inside my head, as scary as that may seem. The way they can twist and turn, meaning one thing in one moment and then something entirely different in the next depending on the listener makes my head spin! And it makes for great conversations.

First of all, every italicized item on the list from our textbook is controversial, as noted. “Literature,” “journalists,” “free speech,” all of these have very broad subject matters and can be interpreted in several ways. One would be hard pressed to go about listing all of the definitions and possible meanings of each word and the claims they hold. But try I will! This is my definition of fun!

To truly establish a criteria for any of these, research must first be done. One should look into each category, getting a basic understanding of general definitions and then applying them in context to the claim of definition. Then, a personal definition must be drawn up. What, personally, does “serious literature” mean to you? Or “journalists?” Or “marriage?” When you understand what you mean when using the word, you can better understand what others may see, and that is what must be done next. Where as one can view marriage to mean a union between a man and woman, another can see it between man and man, woman and woman, or even as a simple union, be it any type of factor(marriage between business partners).

After the above steps are completed, one must look at the picture as a whole, taking into account his/her own definitions, personal beliefs, the beliefs of others, and all possible meanings of one word. Then and only then can one start to consider the entire phrase and start to form a criteria of definition for that phrase.

All of the phrases in our text are examples of operational definitions. In other words, each phrase defines itself in criteria. For example, “graphic novels are serious literature.” The ‘serious literature’ part can be defined by graphic novels, and therefore would be operational because the speaker of the phrase is defining serious literature by graphic novels. Same can be said for the other phrases. “Marriage” is operationally defined by sex and “civil disobedience” is defined by an act, plagiarism.

In all reality, any word can be defined anyway by anybody. They are all relative. Who is to say the word ‘dog’ has to mean dog as we all know it? Claims of definition are made everyday and one just has to know what to look for when listening to people speak. Otherwise, you may be saying something you do not mean to another person, for the simple reason that they define words differently.