Author(s)

Nditsheni Emmanuel Tshikwatamba

National School of Government, Pretoria, South Africa.

The article provides for the critical analyses of definitions applied in the use of language connecting the definiendum with definiens to demote ambiguities and vagueness. Analysis of definitions is supplemented by terminological scrutiny in order to provide for applicable meanings within the regime of sentence construction in a specific context taking into account the technical application of terms. Conceptual analyses is provided in order to distinct terms from concepts that are mental category of objects, ideas and events sharing same properties, grouped together for comprehension and easy application. The complexity of meanings in contextual relations pertaining phonetics, grammar, lexicography and semantics is provided in the analyses. The analytical model of meaning is depicted within the realm of a triangle to discover compliments of meanings in relation with the role of the frame of references, symbols and referent. A more detailed discussion pertaining symbols is isolated and advanced to convey their definitional role beyond the expressions of words.

Definitions, Analyses, Terms, Concepts, Meanings, Symbols

Tshikwatamba, N. (2016) Definitions—A Monotonous Leisure Time of Analyses in Philosophical and Intellectual Search for Meanings. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 159-171. doi: 10.4236/jss.2016.47026.