NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Ostensive definition

An ostensive definition conveys the meaning of a term by pointing out examples. This type of definition is often used where the term is difficult to define verbally, either because the words will not be understood (as with children and new speakers of a language) or because of the nature of the term (such as colors or sensations). It is usually accompanied with a gesture pointing out the object serving as an example, and for this reason is also often referred to as "definition by pointing." Ostensive definitions rely on an analogical or case-based reasoning by the subject they are intended to.^{[citation needed]} Shortcut: WP:-( Vandalism is indisputable bad-faith addition, deletion, or change to content, made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of the encyclopedia. ... Shortcut: WP:-( Vandalism is indisputable bad-faith addition, deletion, or change to content, made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of the encyclopedia. ... In linguistics, meaning is the content carried by the words or signs exchanged by people when communicating through language. ... Look up definition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ... Case-based reasoning (CBR), broadly construed, is the process of solving new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems. ...

For example, defining "red" by pointing out red objects -- apples, stop signs, roses -- is giving ostensive definition, as is naming. It is thought that children may learn a great deal of their language ostensively.^{[citation needed]}

Ostensive definition assumes the questioner has sufficient understanding to recognize the type of information being given. Ludwig Wittgenstein writes: So one might say: the ostensive definition explains the use--the meaning--of the word when the overall role of the word in language is clear. Thus if I know that someone means to explain a colour-word to me the ostensive definition "That is called 'sepia' " will help me to understand the word.... One has already to know (or be able to do) something in order to be capable of asking a thing's name. But what does one have to know?^[1] Wittgenstein and Hitler in school photograph taken at the Linz Realschule in 1903. ...

The limitations of ostensive definition are exploited in a famous argument from the Philosophical Investigations (which deal primarily with the philosophy of language), the private language argument, in which Wittgenstein asks if it is possible to have a private language that no one else can understand.^[2] Book cover of the Blackwell edition of Philosophical Investigations Philosophical Investigations (Philosophische Untersuchungen) is, along with the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, one of the two major works by 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. ... Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. ... The private language argument is a philosophical argument said to be found in Ludwig Wittgensteins later work, especially in Philosophical Investigations. ... Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), pictured here in 1930, made influential contributions to Logic and the philosophy of language, critically examining the task of conventional philosophy and its relation to the nature of language. ...

Ostension in folklore

The term ostension is also used by those who study folklore and urban legends to indicate real-life happenings that parallel the events told in pre-existing and well-established legends and lore. The term was first used by semiotician Umberto Eco to describe the way in which people communicate message through miming actions, as by holding up a pack of cigarettes to say, "Would you like one?" ^[3] The concept was applied to contemporary legends by folklorists Linda Dégh and Andrew Vázsonyi, who defined it as the way in which "the reality itself, the thing, the situation or event itself functions in the role of message" ^[4] Dégh and Vázsonyi argued that the most direct form of ostension involved committing an actual crime mentioned in a well-known urban legend, such as microwaving someone's pet animal or placing poison in a child's Halloween candy. While such events are rare, the authors stressed that folklorists must recognize "that fact can become narrative and narrative can become fact" (p. 29). This article does not cite any references or sources. ... An urban legend or urban myth is similar to a modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ...

Dégh and Vázsonyi, followed by other analysts, argued that there were two other forms of ostension that did not necessarily involve literal acting out of legends. Quasi-ostension involves interpretation of ambiguous events in terms of a legend, as when a murder is first believed to have been a "cult" sacrifice or "gang" murder when in fact the perpetrator had other motives. Many local media panics are based in this form of ostension. ^[5]

Pseudo-ostension involves legend-like events that intentionally acted out by persons aware of the original narrative. For example, in 1991, Ebony, published a letter written by "C.J." a Dallas-area woman who said she was HIV-positive, but intentionally having sex was as many men as possible. Soon after, a local radio talk-show broadcast a phone call from a woman who said she was the real "C.J." "I blame it on men, period" she said to the talk-show host. "I'm doing it to all the men because it was a man that gave it to me." After a huge spike in males seeking HIV screening in the Dallas-Fort-Worth area, both the author of the letter and the talk-show caller were identified as hoaxers intending to raise consciousness of the disease. ^[6]

Ostension has become an important concept for folklorists studying the ways in which folklore affects everyday people's real lives, ranging from supernatural rituals such as Legend tripping to the complex ways in which awareness of AIDS has affected people's sexual habits. ^[7] Legend tripping, in the folklore of the United States, is a name recently bestowed by folklorists and anthropologists on an adolescent rite of passage in which a usually furtive nocturnal pilgrimage is made to a site which is alleged to have been the scene of some tragic, horrific, and possibly... Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ...

Notes

References

Dégh, Linda; Andrew Vázsonyi (1983). "Does the Word 'Dog' Bite? Ostensive Action: A Means of Legend Telling.". 'Journal of Folklore Research' 20: 5-34.

Eco, Umberto (1976). A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253202175. Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays. ...

Goldstein, Diane E (2004). Once upon a Virus: Aids Legends and Vernacular Risk Perception.. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. ISBN 0874215870.

Richardson, James T.; Joel Best & David Bromley (1991), The Satanism Scare, New York: Aldine de Gruyter, ISBN: 0202303799

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1953/2001). Philosophical Investigations. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23127-7. Wittgenstein and Hitler in school photograph taken at the Linz Realschule in 1903. ...

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Ostension in folklore

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Ostension in folklore