how are words that can't be ostensivley defined, defined to children?

Question

I am not sure if i have spelt ostensivley right but what i mean by that is words that have an object associated with them eg a chair can be defined by pointing at a chair. how is the meaning of a word with no related object communicated taught etc.

yeah i mean abstract concepts e.g the word: soul or the word : lucid

or the word :philosophy

i dont mean bottle because that can be ostensively defined and rattle can be illustrated. but words that can't be illustrate shown etc.

ostensive, that is the correct spelling

Answer 1

It depends on an individual child - how old they are and if they are prepared to understand the word. You mean abstract words? Or what do you mean?

Answer 2

All things not ostensible are defined by their "denotation." This is the essence of the word as given by a dictionary. Dictionaries differ, sometimes, in their metaphysical take on words, so sometimes it is up to you to choose the one that fits best your epistemology.
Essenses, however, must be understood by the person. Adults are expected to be able to follow a continuous line of dictionary words that will eventually explain the meaning of the first word, if they did not comprehend it as it stood alone.
Children, however, have different levels of understanding. What a 3 year old may understand is much less than a 10 year old. So the "essence" of "dog" to a 3 year old may be "an animal that lives with us and makes us happy, with four legs, a tail, and it barks."
To a 10 year old the essence may be "a member of the wolf family, but it has friendly genes instead of wild genes that make wolves dangerous."
Something like that.

Answer 3

Through the child's use of context in conversation with adults and other children. Kinda like decoding, you know that certain symbols mean certain things - so figure out the mysterious symbol used in the middle of a sentence by making it fit the rest of the equation.

One thing to remember is that when adults learn a new word we tend to assimilate as much of the full dictionary definition as we can at the time - and I think that often that definition doesn't get much further refining.

Children, especially very young ones, will appropriate a word and further refine its definition as the years go on. One of the first words like you describe might be "love" as the parents and siblings talk to the babe they may use that word to describe the physical care and attention they are giving.

"Good" and "Bad" are often learnt fairly early (or sometimes NOT as the case may be hehe!), and learnt to describe certain behaviours of the child. So, the child's first definition of "bad" might be something like hitting another toddler who took his or her toy. When it is used to describe another behaviour, the child should go through a re-classification or re-definition step where they assimilate 2 or more things under the same word "bad". Sometimes it takes a while, because the child's brain was pretty darned sure "bad" meant one thing, and now you're saying it's another as well.

Anyway, point is, the process for learning a given word or concept at an early age doesn't stop - the breadth of vocabulary develops with more words as does the refining of the child's definitions through experience and communication.

Answer 4

You should start by not wanting to get pregnant, just have sex everyday or every other day and don't think about getting pregnant, just have fun with your partner. Get more useful information and guides to get pregnant here https://tr.im/5qUwG
after sex-put a pillow under your butt or prop your feet up on the wall so your pelvis is tilted
eat healthy
back off caffiene
workout, even if its just a 20 minute walk a day, be active.

Answer 5

Children don't learn language by being given definitions, on the whole, but by experiencing words as they are used. This is how they would be defined. Wittgenstein would probably say that they were meaningless if they couldn't refer to anything in sensory experience, as would a logical behaviourist.

Answer 6

You use them in context in a sentance or describe the meaning using words which mean the same thing which they are already aware of, for example our daughter asked this evening "what does generous mean?" and we answered "when you ask for something and you receive more than what you expected that is generous" she was happy with that answer

Answer 7

A child's wonder can not be defined. The child's superior sense of wonder will necessarily encircle the adult's pedantries with the question below.

What is a word?

Answer 8

Children learn different concepts at different ages. Erik Erikson has one of the most accepted theories of human development....the first four stages deal with children from birth to adolescence. Also, Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development is worth a look. You can google both of these names and their theories of child development and be enlightened. Happy Hunting!

Answer 9

I think children, like all of us, pick up difficult to define words from the context they're used in. I know my youngest picked up the word "b ugger" from hearing me when I hit my thumb with the hammer, and then realised that it was a naughty word one shouldn't use from my embarrassment & apologies!

Answer 10

by example
words such as love, happy, caring, etc etc a child will learn by what you teach/show them it means,
as in
if you teach love as accepting, and non-violent, that is what they learn
if you teach love includes violence (such as spanking) they learn that
most of these words have different meanings to each person, while perhaps having a general meaning, i think that is the most important thing you can teach a child, diversity, and show them what the words mean to you ,