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A stipulative definition is one that assigns a new meaning to a word . They are also known as legislative definitions. It is a definition that assigns meaning to a word, sometimes without considering whether the word has a previous usual meaning. A stipulative definition proposes, or stipulates, that a word must be used in a certain way. It is also defined as the assignment of a new meaning to a word that had another meaning. The main characteristic of a stipulative definition is that the moment it is stated in a conversation, in an essay or in a scientific paper, it is given a new meaning; Likewise, you can also assign a meaning to a word that did not exist before.
Let’s see how some authors define it.
A stipulative definition proposes, or stipulates, that the word must be used in a certain way. Michael Ghislin.
A stipulative definition is useful only if it establishes understandable and predictable standards of use that are feasible for the purpose in question. If a stipulative definition becomes popular, the defined word in its new sense becomes part of vernacular and is susceptible to changes and variations in usage, just like other words. Trudy Govier.
Stipulative definitions are misused in verbal disputes when one person covertly uses a word in a peculiar way and then proceeds to assume that everyone else uses that word with that meaning. In these circumstances that person is said to use the word ‘stipulatively’. In such cases the assumption that the other person uses the word with the same meaning is rarely justified. Patrick J. Hurley.
Stipulative definitions that have biased meanings are called ‘persuasive definitions’; their goal is to persuade and manipulate people, not to clarify meaning or encourage communication. Persuasive definitions are sometimes found in advertising, in political campaigns, and in discussions of moral and political values. For example, the definition “A caring mother is one who uses Softness brand disposable diapers” is persuasive because it unfairly stipulates the secondary designation “Softness user.” The term ‘caring mother’ is much more meaningful than that! Jon Stratton.
examples
Artificial intelligence (AI), an expression coined by John McCarthy to designate the set of work being carried out by a group of North American mathematicians, meeting at the so-called Dartmouth conference in 1956.
Cybernetics , a term introduced by Norbert Wiener and defined as the science of systems governed by feedback mechanisms, has been incorporated into the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, extended to the meaning of “the science that studies the analogies between control and communication systems. ” of living beings and those of machines .
Sources
cybernetic, cybernetic | Definition | Dictionary of the Spanish language | RAE – ASALE
Jon Stratton. Critical Thinking for College Students . Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
Michael Ghislin. Metaphysics and the Origin of Species . SUNY Press, 1997.
Patrick J. Hurley. A Concise Introduction to Logic . Eleventh edition. Wadsworth, 2012.
Trudy Govier. A Practical Study of Argument . Seventh edition. Wadsworth, 2010.
