Definition as a Logical and Linguistic Category

Abstract

Definition is a logical and linguistic category that for a long time has been the subject of logicians’ and philosophers’ research. Today we understand a definition as a logical method that allows us to discover a word’s content, i.e. what it means in everyday use or what a speaker intends it to mean for this speaker’s own specific purposes. A definition consists of two parts: definiendum (that what is defined) and definiens (that which defines). The definiendum refers to the exact object, action, state etc., that is to be defined. The definiens contains the information necessary to define this object, action, state etc. This information is obtained during the process of definition. In the language, a definition can mean both the process of developing a sentence and the result of this process, i.e. the sentence itself. When composing an explanation of a word’s lexical meaning, we should draw on the vast experience of Russian lexicography. Practical lexicography gave us a wide range of kinds of word definitions which are now being extensively researched as theoretical generalizations and conclusions. This article explores methods of explanation of word meanings in the context of different possible logical relations between definiendum and definiens: inclusion, overlap, complementarity, adjacency. The existing word definitions (hyponymic, identifying, enumerative, synonymic, antonymic) can be distributed between those kinds of logical relations. Descriptive explanations are regarded as a specific kind of definition. Theoretical generalizations and conclusions are backed by examples from the main explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language.The conclusion is drawn that parts of a word definition can enter into different kinds of logical relations. Exploration of those relations is highly important for educational purposes as methodological basis for correct definitions of word meanings as well as for the composition of lexicographic explanations. At the same time, we shouldn’t forget that there are various ways to define a word’s lexical meaning. One and the same word can be defined in a number of ways, so the lexicographers’ main task is still to choose the best way or combination of ways that can fully and accurately discover the meaning of the word being defined.