Have you ever gotten into a fight or had a misunderstaning with someone because you said a word and meant it one way but they took it another? I know I have, and usually most fights or arguments will start because of people having “different” definitions. Formal definitions are hard to dispute, they come straight from the dictionary and are very straightforward. However, even these definitions can spark an argument. This goes to show, it is hard to really define something; which is probably why people are constantly arguing.
Formal definitions are a bit harder to define. This is because everyone has different experiences and because of this, a different way of viewing or defining something. An example of this is in highs school my parents would reward me for “good” grades. “Good” grades were considered A’s and unless I made the A then I was not rewarded. I was always furious when my best friend would be rewarded not only for A’s but also for B’s. This shows how our definition of “good” grades differed, for her it was an A or a B but for me it was soley an A. I have many foreign players on my team and things are constantly being misunderstood. They grew up and lived in a whole different country than most of the team which has instilled in them different values and different ways to define things. Keeping cultural backgrounds in mind can help avoid an argument.
Definitions by example are very similar to operational defintions, but this definition focuses more on who or what might be on a list. When the guys from King Corn were defining corn, they listed all the places the corn was grown, how it could be grown, and why it was being grown. This provided examples for us to see exactly where and why all this corn was being grown. It is important to keep in mind that things are not easily defined. You can go look in a dictionary for a definition but that will only get you so far.
