LANGUAGE: MEANING AND

DEFINITION
Logic and Critical Thinking
 The functions of language in our day-to-
day lives (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
Ask questions tell jokes
Tell stories flirt with someone
Tell lies give directions
Guess at answers sing songs
Form hypotheses issue commands
Launch verbal assaults greet someone
 Two functions of Language in Logic
1. To convey information (cognitive meaning)
2. To express or evoke feelings (emotive meaning)
EXAMPLES
1. The Russian revolution, which occurred in March 1917, was
caused in part by the defeat of the Russian army at the hands
of the Germans and by the subsequent collapse of the Russian
economy.
2. The Russians, a nation of savage, paranoid barbarians, pursue
their insane dream of world-wide dominion without the
slightest regard for even the most basic of hum
 Cognitive and Emotive Meaning
1. Cognitive Meaning = conveys information
2. Emotive Meaning = expresses or evokes
feelings
Example:
1. house, tree, bird, book
2. liar, fool, charlatan, holocaust
 Emotive Meaning
Gives language vitality and eloquence
Without it, poetry and speeches are bland.
From the standpoint of argument evaluation, it involves certain
elements of danger.
Reason: Evidence, pure and simple, is conveyed through words that
have a cognitive meaning.
The emotive component tends to convey the illusion that evidence is
being presented when in fact it is not and the illusion that evidence,
when it is presented, is stronger (or weaker) than it actually is.
For these reasons the occurrence of emotive terminology can fool us
into thinking that a passage contain an argument when in fact it does
not or that an argument is strong when in fact it is weak.
 Manipulation of emotively laden
terminology
Who usually use them to perfection?
Military Spokesmen, Political Officials, Advertisers, corporate officials,
and certain religious leaders
Military Spokesmen:
Pre-emptive strike a sneak attack
Enhanced radiation device to pacify neutron bomb
A police action a war
Surgical strike precision bombing
Advertiser:
Minolta Cameras: Programmed to make creative decisions
BMW cars: have sensual lines, sculptured chrome, and the
omnipresent scent of leather
Emperador Brandy: kaagapay sa tagumpay
 What is a TERM
TERM: any word or arrangement of words that
may serve as the subject of a statement.
Consists of proper names, common names, and
descriptive phrases.
NON-TERMS: verbs, non-substantive
adjectives, adverbs, prepositions,
conjunctions, and all non-syntactic
arrangements.
 Examples of TERMS
Proper Common Descriptive Phrases
Names Names
Ruby Animal First president of the
Cebu City House Philippines
The Author of Biag ni Lam-ang
Activity
Philippine cars in my garage
Senate
Person
Senators of the Philippines
Jose Rizal Restitution
Those who study hard
Nick Joaquin Beauty
Blue things
 Examples of Non-terms
Dictatorial
Runs quickly
Above and beyond
Moreover
Craves
Cabbages into again the forest
 PROPERTIES OF A TERM: Comprehension
(Intension) and Extension
Words are usually considered to be symbols, and the
entities they symbolize are usually called meanings.
Terms, being made up of words, are also symbols, but
the meaning they symbolize are of two kinds:
1. Intensional meaning (intension or connotation): consists of
the qualities or attributes that the term connotes
2. Extensional meaning (extension or denotation): consists of the
members of the class that the term denotes.
 Example

Class members Attributes

(extension) (intension)

Thomas Edison,
Alexander Graham Bell,
Inventor Clever,
Intuitive,
Samuel F. B. Morse, Creative,
Wright Brothers
Imaginative
Increasing and Decreasing: Intension vis--
vis Extension
Principle: inversely proportional
As the intension increases, the extension decreases or vice-
versa.
Increasing intension:
Animal, mammal, feline, lion
Increasing extension:
Lion, feline, mammal, animal
Decreasing intension:
Lion, feline, mammal, animal
Decreasing extension:
Animal, mammal, feline, lion
 EXAMPLE
SUBSTANCE SPIRIT, MINERAL, PLANT, BRUTE, MAN

SUBSTANCE, CORPOREAL MINERAL, PLANT, BRUTE, MAN

SUBSTANCE, CORPOREAL, LIVING PLANT, BRUTE, MAN

SUBSTANCE, CORPOREAL, LIVING, SENTIENT BRUTE, MAN

SUBSTANCE, CORPOREAL, LIVING, SENTIENT, MAN

RATIONAL
 Exercises:
I. Determine which of the following words or group of words are
terms and which are non-terms:
Extortion, laborious, cunningly, practitioner, seriousness, forever,
whoever studies, interestingly impassive, scarlet, reinvestment,
therefore, Ruby Suazo, Robert Hoppener Building, annoy, render
satisfactory, graceful dancer, mountaintop
II. Name some of the attributes connoted by the following terms.
Express your answer with adjectives or adjectival phrases. Example:
The term elephant connotes the attributes of being large, having
tusks, having a trunk.
Drum, politician, devil, Mona Lisa, St. Arnold and St. Josephs Church,
carrot
 Exercises:
III. Name five items denoted by the terms below:
Newspaper scientist river
Tallest mountain on earth
Prime number less than 10
Representatives from Cebu Province
Language of Philippines
Southeast Asian Countries
IV. Put the following sequences of terms in the order of increasing
intension:
Animal, substance, organism, thing, man
Italian sports car, car, vehicle, Ferrari, sports car
Parallelogram, polygon, square, rectangle, quadrilateral
Doctor of Medicine, person, brain surgeon, professional person,
surgeon