Chapter Three

Logic and Language

What is language?
 is a means of communication.
 is all about the standardized meaning of
words .
is all about a form of speech.
 Logic… Arguments.... Statements…
sentences… Words
 Thus, forming an argument is a linguistic
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 Functions of Language
Why do we need language?
Language can serve us so many
functions in our life.
It helps us to express our feeling
or our desires, to ask questions, to
lie, to sing a song and so on.

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 Main functions of language
 For our purpose, two linguistic functions
are particularly important:
(1) to convey information and
(2) to express or evoke feelings.
Consider, for example, the following
statements:
The death penalty, which is legal in thirty-
six states, has been carried out most often
in Georgia; however, since 1977 Texas
holds the record for the greatest number of
executions.
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The death penalty is a cruel and inhuman
 A. cognitive
 is also called Informative usage of
language.
 is helpful to convey or transmit
information.
 a statement that is helpful to
transmit info is called a statement with
cognitive meaning.
Example.
 Ethiopia has its own prestigious airlines.
4  Ethiopia is found in the eastern part of
 B. Emotive
Is also called expressive usage of
language
Is helpful to evoke or elicit either –ve or
+ ve feeling
Are helpful to express our feeling.
a statement that is helpful to express
feeling is called a statement with
emotive meaning.
 Example.
 She is smart.
 I like my logic teacher.
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 C. Directive
Helpful to give some strong
commands or directions
A statement which is helpful to give
commands or directions is called a
statement with directive meaning.
Example. Go back !
Leave the class room now!
N.B All the three usages of language
are not
necessarily mutually exclusive.
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 Meaning of Terms
What is a term?
 is a word or group of words that
serve us a subject of a
statement.
Terms include:
1. proper Names: Ahmed
2. common Names: Human beings
3. descriptive phrases: Ahmed
who is living in the next door.

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 What are non terms?
Any word or group of words which can
not serve us a subject of a statement.
Non terms include
verbs, adverbs, adjectives,
conjunctions and disjunctions
N.B There are some exceptional cases
in which a given verb or adverb may
serve us a subject of a statement.
Ex “Slowly ” is a six letter word
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 Intentional and Extensional meaning of Terms
Terms are words and have two meanings:
Intentional and Extensional
There are so many ways or methods which
are helpful to produce definition
There are two types of definitional
techniques
1. Extensional
2. Intentional
These are the two definitional
techniques
that could be expressed in different
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mechanisms.
 A. Intentional Meaning
also called connotative meanings
Is all about those important
attributes, qualities, or
characteristics of things which are
co notated or represented by the
term at hand.
Example. “Cat” can be attributed as
a domestic animal, which is fury,
adorable, emitting a certain sound
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like Mi aw and eat house mice.
 Cont…
They are vulnerable for
subjectivity
To counter balance this problem
we can have one method the so
called Conventional connotation
Conventional connotation is an
agreed up on meaning of words or
terms
Example. “Cat” is a domestic
11 animal, which is fury and emitting
 Intensional Definitional techniques
 Intensional meaning of a term could be
expressed through the following.
1. Synonymous
 the definiens is a synonymous word for the
word being defined.
The definien and definidum are similar
we can use both of them
interchangeably
Example.
“Disorder” means Anarchy.
“Skinny” means thin.
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 2. Etymological Definition
We are expected to goes back to the
root or the origin of that word.
Is helpful to know the historical
detail of the word being defined
Example. What is “ Logic”,
Logic comes from the Greek word
“logos” it means sentence, discourse,
reason, truth and rule.

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 3. Operational
Through showing a certain
experimental procedure or
operation we can define a given
word.
Helpful to bring abstract
concepts in to empirical
reality.
Example. what is “acid”
“Acid” is a substance which will
14 return a given litmus paper in to
 4. By Genus and Difference
Three things are important here
Genus………. Larger class
Species……… sub class of the
class
Difference……. d/c b/n the genus
and species
Species + Difference + Genus
E.g , HUSBAND MEANS MARRIED MAN

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 B:Extensional Meanings
Is also called denotative meaning
Is all about the members of the class
of things
Relatively seen they are not
exposed to subjectivity
“Cat “ all cats in the world.
Any term having no member is called
a term with Empty extension.
Example. God,dinocers & Satan
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 Extensional Definitional techniques

Extensional meaning of a term is expressed through
the following.
1. Demonstrative definitions
 also known as ostensive definitions
 is the most backward type of definitional
technique
 To communicate with foreigner that cannot speak the
language of the former
 To transmit the desired message.
 we are expected to point at or show the subject
to be defined.
 can be either partial or complete
 limited by both time and space
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 2. Enumerative
Through naming the members of the
class of things we can define words.
Can be either partial or complete.
Example. Foot ball player means
like Ronaldo, Messi,
Rooney,Vanperse,Gerard,
Lampard,Tevez,Suarez,Ba,Roben ,Rib
eri, Balatoli etc

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 3. Definition by Sub class
By naming the sub class of the
class we can define words.
Can be either partial or complete
Example. “human being is
African,
Asian ,American ,European
human beng.

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 What is Definition ?
Is a means or a method of explicating
or explaining the meaning of words.
Every definition has two components:
Definiendum and Definines
Definiendum ….. a word which is
supposed to be define.
Definines …… a word or group of
words which does the defining.
Example. Computer (definiendum)
is an electronic device that takes input
20 processes it and produces an out put.
 Definitions based on their purpose
A. Stipulative
Helpful to assign a meaning for the first time.
helpful to substitute complex words with
simpler words.
helpful to develop secret codes.
 are arbitrary assignment of meanings for
some other words
 can not be either true or false
Example. “operation sun set” - secret code
Logo phobia - complex word
Name for the newly born child-
21 for 1st time.
 B. Theoretical
Helpful to show the theoretical
picture or characterization of the
definiendum.
Based on Great and known
theories.
They can not be either true or false
Example. “Goodness” …… Utilitarian
Realism ….in reality/fact
Idealism……ideology
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 C. Persuasive
Are helpful to influence the attitude
of others
Helps us to create either –ve or +ve
attitude towards the definiendum
Using emotively charged words or
phrases is mandatory
Such a type of definitions are backed
by Emotional appeal
Have no truth value

23 Eg, Abortion is a ruthless murdering
 D. Précising
Are helpful to reduce the
vagueness of words
What is the deference between
ambiguous and vague words?
Vague words lacks precision in
their application
Vague: they have different
meaning in different situations
are not arbitrary assignment of
meanings for words, the assignment
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 E. Lexical
also called dictionary definitions or they
can be considered as conventional
definition.
 Ambiguous words: contains two distinct
meanings at the same time
Lexical definitions are intended to reduce
ambiguousness of words
Expresses the proper usage of
language.
Can be either true or false
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E x, Light means Easy.
 Rules for Lexical Definitions
1. Should show the essential meaning
of the definiendum:human’’ as
“featherless biped.”, ‘‘human’’ means
the animal that has the capacity to
reason and to speak
2. should have a proper grammar
3. Should not be too broad or narrow
4. Should not be circular. E.g“Science’’
means the activity engaged in by scientists.

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 cont..

[Link] not be negative when it can be

affirmative.
“Concord’’ means harmony.
“Concord’’ means the absence of discord
[Link] not be expressed in
figurative ,obscure, vague and ambiguous.
Eg. “Camel’’ means a ship of the desert.
[Link] avoid affective expressions &
terminologies.
“Communism’’ means that ‘‘brilliant’’ invention of Karl
Marx and other foolish political visionaries in which the
national wealth is supposed to be held in common by
the people.
[Link] indicate the context to which the
27 definiens pertains.
 Thank
you
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