What is a lexical definition in philosophy?

Definition, In philosophy, the specification of the meaning of an expression relative to a language. Lexical definition specifies the meaning of an expression by stating it in terms of other expressions whose meaning is assumed to be known (e.g., a ewe is a female sheep).

What are the five definitions of philosophy?

Theory or logical analysis of the principles underlying conduct, thought, knowledge, and the nature of the universe: included in philosophy are ethics, aesthetics, logic, epistemology, metaphysics, etc. Philosophy is often divided into five major branches: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics.

What is the purpose of lexical definition?

Explaining How a Word is Used In General Contexts A lexical definition (sometimes also called a reportive definition) is any definition which explains how a word is actually used. It is thus distinct from stipulative definitions which simply propose a possible way to use a word and which may or may not be accepted.

What is the purpose of a lexical definition?

A lexical definition (sometimes also called a reportive definition) is any definition which explains how a word is actually used. It is thus distinct from stipulative definitions which simply propose a possible way to use a word and which may or may not be accepted.

Is there a Britannica article on lexical definition?

Lexical definition. language and philosophy. THIS IS A DIRECTORY PAGE. Britannica does not currently have an article on this topic. In definition Lexical definition specifies the meaning of an expression by stating it in terms of other expressions whose meaning is assumed to be known (e.g., a ewe is a female sheep).

What is the difference between lexical and postlexical phonology?

Postlexical phonology deals with phonological rules applied after the lexical rules have been applied, they are automatic according to the syntactical or phonological environment, think of the flapping rule typical of American English (the t sound in butter and little), it does not relate to any morphological rule to apply.

What is the meaning of a word in philosophy?

Word Meaning. Word meaning has played a somewhat marginal role in early contemporary philosophy of language, which was primarily concerned with the structural features of sentence meaning and showed less interest in the nature of the word-level input to compositional processes.