Defining ladies and gentlemen

1. Defining ladies and gentlemen Great Expectations Ch. 37-40

2. “If,” Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you        Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,     But make allowance for their doubting too;    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,     Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,     And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

3. If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;        If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster     And treat those two impostors just the same;    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken     Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,     And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

4. If you can make one heap of all your winnings     And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings     And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew     To serve your turn long after they are gone,    And so hold on when there is nothing in you     Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,        Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,     If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute     With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,        And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

5. What Great Expectations characters are ladies or gentlemen?

6. Defining moments The body of an expository essay should develop the main point with a complete explanation. It should include enough examples, details and facts to fulfill the reader’s expectations and cover the main point thoroughly. You can create an informative tone by defining items, using precise language, being objective and focusing on instructing the reader.

7. Reportive Definitions • Reportive definitions – in this kind of definition a description is offered of the conventional meaning of a word, and if the description does not match the actual way that the word is used, then the definition is incorrect. • Depending on the accuracy of the survey of the usage, the definition is either true or false. • A reportive definition gives an explanation of the general meaning a word carries for a group of language users. • Example: A gentleman would be “any man of good, courteous conduct”

8. Example Definitions • Example definitions explain the meaning of a word by mentioning some instances of it. • Once we know the range of things referred to by a term, then we have a clearer understanding of its meaning. • For instance, an example definition of “bird” might include Robin, Oriole, Blue jay, and so forth.

9. Also covered by example definition are descriptions of the sort of experience that is involved. • For example, we might explain the meaning of “depressed” as the feeling you get when you’re alone after breaking up with someone you’ve been involved with for a long time. It’s Saturday night, the telephone doesn’t ring, no one knocks on the door, there’s a party next door, and a blues song is playing on the radio. That is being depressed.

10. Stipulative Definitions • Stipulative definitions - tointroduce unusual or unfamiliar words, to coin new words, or to introduce a new meaning to a familiar word. • Stipulative definitions come in two varieties, arbitrary and restrictive. • In the arbitrary type people stipulate that, for their purposes, an invented word will henceforth carry a particular meaning. • For example, Sigmund Freud invented three terms to stand for the fundamental energy systems of the psyche: The “id” represents primal upsurging desires; the “ego” means control by rationality and realism; and the “superego” means the internalized social rules, manifested chiefly in the form of conscience.

11. Stipulative Definitions II • The second type of stipulative definition is a restricting one whereby a person proposes to use an ordinary word in a special, limited, or precise sense. • For example, a legislator may say, “My bill proposes aid for the poor, and by ‘poor’ I mean those with family incomes below $6,000 per year.”

12. Your assignment: • Choose a well-known person whom you think is a gentleman or lady. • Describe this person. What makes this person a lady or gentleman? • Which category of lady (manners, wealth and power, beauty, self-made) or gentleman (moral, manners, professional, intellectual, self-made) does this person fall into? • Be prepared to discuss this character and the qualities that make him or her a gentleman or lady on Tuesday. NOW: • Share the example you have gathered with the other members of your group. • List the people AND the characteristics you’ve gathered on the paper provided. • Which of these characteristics do you believe are essential to being a lady or a gentleman?