description |
Working Definition:
Description is the representation through expressions to depict (construct a similacrum of) a concept or percept in words and/or images.
Disciplinary Definitions:
In his Wittgenstein, Anthony Kenny remarks:: "One might seek to give an account of the essence of description in the following manner: to describe a state of affairs is to read off certain features from the facts and portray them in words according to rules." (1974, 196) This allows for others to compare the description to what it depicts. Description begins with observation. "A description must be independent of what it is to be compared with if it is to be assessed as correct or incorrect: (200). In this sense, it is difficult to describe "pain" as there are no "pictures" of it to commpare. It has to be described by analogy.
Comments:
If I am depicting patterns, as in the case of cognitive linguists, I am depecting the outcome of cogntive patterns. But. the "cognition" has to be reflected in the language. So, for example, if I describe the sentence "Michael is 2!/2 years old" I have to allow for the background scale of years and thus allow for identifying a point in a temporal sequence. It might be clearer if I said "Michael is 900 days old." Then tomorrow I said "Michael is 901 days old." The second expression contrasts to the first. So, I have to ability to make such a contrast. The word for this ability is to compare. Thus I am describing "expressions" about null experiences by comparing them to expressions about full experiences.
Notes
To describe expressions (observations of them) is to depict the patterns interrelating their component parts. The depiction takes the form of building a model of those inter-relations.
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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