DISPUTES, VERBAL

DISPUTES, AND
DEFINITIONS
Iqra Aftab
 Kinds of Disputes

■ Three different kinds of disputes must be distinguished.

– Obviously genuine dispute

– Merely verbal disputes
– Apparently verbal but really genuine
 Obviously Genuine Dispute
■ No ambiguity about the dispute between two parties
■ Disputers disagree very clearly, explicitly, and unambiguously
either in attitude or belief (dispute about facts/evaluation).
■ For example:
Mr. Ali believes that Afghanistan is on the western border of
Pakistan, while Mr. Ahmad denies it. They are in genuine dispute
about geographic (disagreement in beliefs with no ambiguity)
 Merely Verbal Disputes

■ Merely verbal disputes arise when a key term in the

formulation of disputants’ beliefs is ambiguous/vague
■ When a phrase or word that is central in the dispute has
different senses that may be equally legitimate but that ought
not to be confused.
■ A term is vague if the context does not make it clear what the
term is intended to cover.
 Example
■ Mr. A says, “John has a new computer.”
■ Mr. B replies, “No, he does not have a new computer, his brother
gave him his old computer when he upgraded and that computer
is at least three years old”
■ Here, the dispute is due to the different ways of
defining/perceiving the term ‘new’ by two parties. One person
defines the ‘new’ as “not used by a previous owner” while the
other person defines the ‘new’ as “not previously in his
possession” so, there’s no genuine disagreement while the dispute
is merely verbal.
 Genuine vs Merely verbal dispute

■ If clarifying the meaning of the terms that are used vaguely

(with different meanings) in a disagreement, resolves the
dispute then the dispute was merely verbal
■ If clarifying the meaning of vague terms does not resolve the
disputes then the dispute may be genuine.
Apparently Verbal but Really Genuine

■ Such disputes are verbal only on the surface.

■ They seem to be verbal but are actually genuine
■ The parties involved may indeed misunderstand one another’s use
of terms, but their quarrel goes beyond this misunderstanding.
■ Such disputes are sometimes called "criterial" or "conceptual."
■ The resolution of every ambiguity only reveals an underlying
genuine dispute.
Example
 Avoiding Verbal Disputes
■ Verbal disputes can be avoided by defining terms. Following
are kinds of definitions which reduce ambiguities and help to
reduce verbal dispute.
 Stipulative Definitions
 Lexical Definitions
 Precising Definitions
 Theoretical Definitions
 Persuasive Definitions
 Stipulative Definitions

■ A stipulative definition is one in which a new symbol or term

is introduced to which some meaning is arbitrarily assigned.
■ A stipulative definition is neither true nor false and neither
accurate nor inaccurate.
■ “Operation Rah-e-Rast” is the code name given to the military
operation of swat or “Operation Khowakh ba de Sham” is the
code name given to military operation of Khyber Agency.
 Stipulative Definitions (Cont’d)

■ The newly defined term does not need to be entirely novel, it

may be new only in the context in which the defining takes
place.

■ It is sometimes known as "nominal" or "verbal" definitions.

 Stipulative Definitions (Cont’d)
Reasons to introduce new term by stipulation:
■ Convenience: Using single word as "short for" many words in
a code or message.
■ Secrecy: The stipulation may be understood only by the sender
and the receiver of the message.
■ Economy in expression: Using minimum space and words to
communicate an idea
■ Psychological purpose: For minimizing psychological effect
 Stipulative Definitions (Cont’d)

Stipulative definitions normally are not productive in resolving

genuine disagreements, but they can help to prevent fruitless
verbal conflicts/disputes by clarifying informative discourse and
by reducing the emotive role of language,
 Lexical Definition

■ A lexical definition is the kind of definition found in

dictionaries
■ It reports the meaning or meanings that a term already has.
■ It is a description of the way the speakers of a particular
language use a particular term in their language.
■ For example, all dictionary definitions
■ It also serves the purpose of eliminating the ambiguity
 Lexical vs Stipulative definitions
■ Where the purpose of the definition is to eliminate ambiguity or
increase the vocabulary of the person for whom it is constructed,
then, if the term being defined is not new but has an established
usage, the definition is lexical rather then stipulative.

■ Stipulative definition's definiendum has no meaning apart from or

before introducing it and it can not be false (or true) while the
definiendum of a lexical definition has a prior and independent
meaning and its definition is either true or false, depending on
whether that meaning is correctly or incorrectly reported.
 Precising definition
■ To reduce vagueness
■ Precising definitions are important in law and legislation.
■ For example:
The word “poor” is vague. If legislation were ever introduced to
give direct financial assistance to the poor, a précising definition
would have to be supplied specifying exactly who is poor and who is
not. According to the precise definition, “poor” means having an
annual income of less than $ 4,000 and a net worth of less than $
20,000.
 Vagueness vs ambiguity
■ A term is ambiguous in a given context when it has more than one
distinct meanings and the context does not make clear which
meaning is intended.
■ A term is vague when there exist "borderline" cases, so that it can
not be determined whether the term should be applied to them or
not.
■ For example facilities and funds for the treatment of mental illness
are often in short supply. To determine in such circumstances that
which person is in the most need of treatment, a more precise
definition of the term "serious mental illness" is needed. This need
was met by Federal Centre for Mental Health Services in 1993 that
it should involve certain characteristics.
 Theoretical definitions

■ Evidence based definitions supported with citation and index

■ Research-based definitions
■ For example, Newton's definition of the terms "mass" and "inertia"
carried with them a commitment to (at least part of) his theories
about the conditions in which physical objects move.
 Persuasive definition

■ A persuasive definition is a definition formulated and used

persuasively to resolve a dispute by influencing attitudes or
stirring emotions, often relying on the use of emotive
language.
■ It is an attempt to attach emotive meaning to the use of a term.