The Evolving Lexicon of Literacy

QUESTION

Though I use the term word here, you may think of this more broadly as any lexical unit. That might include a multiword compound (e.g. peanut butter), a phrase (e.g. no worries), a sign from a signed language (e.g. ASL’s BELIEVEb), or something similar.

Note that the option of including a sign from a signed language indicates that your chosen lexical unit does not need to be from English. For instance, you might choose something from French, Haitian Creole, Lushootseed, Nicaraguan Sign Language, Spanish, or any other natural language. That said, you should have some kind of connection to the word.

Finally, keep in mind that English is much more thoroughly documented than most other languages, and this fact is reflected in the resources available for studying it. So while I encourage you to select a lexical unit from any language you like, you may find it slightly easier to choose an English word.

Structure

The kind of definition essay that we will be writing is what can be called a “classroom genre.” That is, the essay is primarily meant to assess your learning rather than to be a genuine representation of the genre it claims to be. So while Gee’s essay could be considered a definition essay about the word literacy, your goal is not to replicate the structure of Gee’s essay.

Instead, I will ask you to follow a fairly rigid organizational structure.

1. The first paragraph introduces your word and builds toward a thesis that the rest of the essay supports.
2. The first body paragraph explores the history of the word, including its etymology and how its meaning has developed over time.
3. The second and third body paragraphs offer one definition each, including one or more examples of the word being used with those meanings. (An essay that contrasts denotative and connotative meaning will differ slightly. See below.)
4. The fourth body paragraph contrasts the two meanings and explains why that contrast matters.
5. The final paragraph establishes why this essay should matter to your reader, drawing on everything that has come before it.

The definitions that you consider in your second and third paragraphs should not simply be the first two you happen to think of. Instead, they should be definitions whose meanings are different in some way that you find significant. I suggest choosing one of the following kinds of pairs.

• Contrast a historically earlier (perhaps obsolete or archaic) definition with a prominent current definition (e.g. decimate meaning ‘to kill one in every ten’ and ‘to cause great destruction or harm’).
• Contrast a definition of the word in its everyday sense with a definition in a technical sense (e.g., accelerate in its everyday sense ‘to cause to move faster’ and in its technical sense in physics ‘to make any change in velocity’).
• Contrast a definition that occurs in a standard dictionary with a new sense of the word that that dictionary has not yet defined (e.g., shoot meaning ‘an act of shooting with a firearm’ and ‘an unplanned or unscripted event’).
• Contrast a standard definition of the word with a personal definition of the word (e.g., skateboarding meaning ‘an act of riding on a skateboard’ and ‘a display of countercultural defiance’).
• Contrast the denotational meaning of the word with its connotation (e.g., lanky means ‘thin’ but also implies a kind of awkwardness). Note that a connotation is not technically a definition, so this option will lead to an essay with a slightly different structure.

ANSWER