Practice Finding Definitions of Words[Dface]

[Dface]

Project Summary:
Find definitions of words in a sentence.
Goal:
Get practice using dictionary
Success criteria (& optional failure criteria):
80% of all words defined.
Big picture goal, why you want to do this, or CF relevance:
Have an easier time knowing the meaning of words when reading.
Plan:
Find a website for simple sentences online
put the sentence in a tree
make child nodes of its individual words
make child nodes of each word node and put their definitions there

Context: (optional – fill out or delete the context section)
I have trouble finding definitions online and want more practice

[Dface]

Tree:

Only one i’m usure about is the definition of food. i know it intuitively, but I’m not sure about its definition.

Success criteria (& optional failure criteria):

@Dface

80% of all words defined.

I don’t know how I did. I don’t know how to tell how good or bad a definition is.

Goals:

@Dface

Have an easier time knowing the meaning of words when reading.

I learned the definition of gobble is eating something loudly and in a fast way. So now I’ll have an easier with that.

[ActiveMind]

@Dface

I don’t know how to tell how good or bad a definition is.

Was the goal just to pick definitions that fit the use of the word in the sentence or to pick definitions that fit and are good as definitions?

Candidates for what makes a definition good:

• describes essentials of the concept the word defines
• doesn’t include inessentials
• differentiates between similar concepts to the word defined
• is efficient/economical in description
• is verbose (contradicts the point above, which is better? Verbose is by definition too much, but I mean should it tend towards describing a little extra or really focus on no unnecessary words)
• is easy to understand
• integrates well with other definitions in the dictionary
• doesn’t contradict other definitions
• is logically consistent it self, has no inner contradictions
• describes relevant context

There’s a chapter on definitions in Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. That stuff is technical epistemology, not easy to read. I looked at the chapter a bit for inspiration for bullet points, but mostly I thought of this stuff of the top of my head. I’m not trying to represent Objectivism here.

@Dface

Only one i’m usure about is the definition of food.

I think the definition fits the use in the sentence. I don’t think the information is incorrect, but I don’t think protein, carbohydrates, and fat need to be mentioned. Also “and vital processes” seems to not fit in the sentence, it seems grammatically incorrect to me. I like the New Oxford Dictionary definition of food better, it’s simpler and seems to define the essentials better.

@Dface

I don’t know how I did.

The definitions all seem to fit to me.

[Dface]

@ActiveMind

Was the goal just to pick definitions that fit the use of the word in the sentence

Yeah, pick definitions that fit the word.

@ActiveMind

I don’t think the information is incorrect, but I don’t think protein, carbohydrates, and fat need to be mentioned.

Oh, I was thinking if food had to have protein, carbohydrates, and fat to be considered food so I was unsure.

@ActiveMind

There’s a chapter on definitions in Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.

That’s cool I’ll look that up.

@ActiveMind

The definitions all seem to fit to me.

That sounds good. I think I’m overthinking it

[Dface]

I was wondering if it’s ok keep posting on a mini-project thread for more attempts or do I have to make a new thread every time? I don’t want to clutter the thread.

Attempt #2:

Success criteria (& optional failure criteria):

@Dface

80% of all words defined.

I defined all the words and the definitions weren’t that hard so I think it was a success.

Goals:

@Dface

Have an easier time knowing the meaning of words when reading.

Now I know that with the preposition “on” it could be refer to being supported by one’s body part.

[Elliot]

@Dface

I was wondering if it’s ok keep posting on a mini-project thread for more attempts or do I have to make a new thread every time? I don’t want to clutter the thread.

Don’t worry about cluttering threads.

[Dface]

Ok that sounds good ty

[Dface]

Attempt #3:

@Dface

Success criteria (& optional failure criteria):
80% of all words defined.

Only word I’m not sure about is “She.” “She” was not previously mentioned, and I don’t know how she is easily identifiable. Like does being easily identifiable mean that the audience knows there is a human girl that the sentence is referring to? Besides that I think I defined all the words.

@Dface

Have an easier time knowing the meaning of words when reading.

I know now that “with” can refer to objects and it’s connecting the object(not the grammatical object) and the verb in some way.

[Dface]

Attempt #4:

Success criteria (& optional failure criteria):

@Dface

80% of all words defined.

I didn’t know how to define “to”, but the rest I think the definitions fit.

@Dface

Goals:

Have an easier time knowing the meaning of words when reading.

I remember that “to” and “eat” are words that make up an infinitive.