Tham khảo tài liệu 'the oxford essensial guide to writing phần 4', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | 4 DEFINITION ANALYSIS AND QUALIFICATION By its most common definition the word history now means the past of mankind. Compare the German word for history Ges-chichte which is derived from geschehen meaning to happen. Geschichte is that which has happened. This meaning of the word history is often encountered in such overworked phrases as all history teaches or the lessons of history. Loris Gottschalk Professor Gottschalk s is a nominal definition. The essayist G. K. Chesterton on the other hand in defining marriage is concerned with the institution and not the word that is he is making a real definition Marriage is not a mere chain upon love as the anarchists say nor is it a mere crown upon love as the sentimentalists say. Marriage is a fact an actual human relation like that of motherhood which has certain human habits and loyalties except in a few monstrous cases where it is turned to a torture by special insanity and sin. A marriage is neither an ecstasy nor a slavery it is a commonwealth it is a separate working and fighting thing like a nation. Consensual Stipulative and Legislative Definitions Rather than kinds of definitions the distinction here is more a matter of purpose. The purpose of a consensual definition is simply to tell us how people commonly use a word or what they understand a thing to be. It is what you find when you open your dictionary. A stipulative definition is a special meaning given to a word or entity for a particular purpose. It differs from the usual consensual definition but is perfectly legitimate so long as the writer clearly explains what he or she means and uses the term consistently in its special sense. A legislative definition also differs from the conventional sense it is put forward as what the word ought to mean. It differs from a stipulative definition in that the writer is not saying For convenience I shall use X to mean such and so. Instead the writer is asserting I shall use X to mean such 134 THE EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH .
