User:Marshallsumter/Dominant group/Lexical definition

A lexical definition is usually a dictionary definition and "is either true or false."

Notation
To help with definitions, their meanings and intents, there is the learning resource theory of definition.

Notation: Let the letters "Def." indicate that a definition is following.

Def. "a social group that controls the value system and rewards in a particular society." is called a dominant group, occurs in Mosby's Medical Dictionary.

"For purposes of this analysis, I define a dominant ethnic group as the ethnic group in a society that exercises power to create and maintain a pattern of economic, political, and institutional advantage, which in turn results in the unequal (disproportionately beneficial to the dominant group) distribution of resources."

Def. "the ethnic group in a society that exercises power to create and maintain a pattern of economic, political, and institutional advantage, which in turn results in the unequal (disproportionately beneficial to the dominant group) distribution of resources" is called a dominant ethnic group.

"[A] group is dominant if it possesses a disproportionate share of societal resources, privileges, and power."

Def. a group that "possesses a disproportionate share of societal resources, privileges, and power" is called a dominant group.

Def. “[u]nder the many conditions of life which this world affords, any group which is numerous in individuals and species and is widely distributed, may properly be called dominant" [a dominant group]. [Letter 110. To W.H. Harvey, August, 1860]

Def. groups of insects whose geographical distribution "extends to the tropics, [but] fall short of the polar circles" are called dominant groups.

Dictionaries
Initially, according to a Google scholar search using "Dictionary of Biology" + "dominant group", there is a "[CITATION] Dictionary Of Biology R Rita - Anmol Publications PVT. LTD." which suggests without direct verification online that this dictionary contains a definition of "dominant group" in biology. Subsequent searches no longer produce this [CITATION].

On Google scholar is "[CITATION] 1.2 A Practical Medical Dictionary (1911) TL Stedman… - The nature of difference: sciences of race …, 2009 - The MIT Press" that contains "Dictionary of Anthropology" + "dominant group" in some form. Further searching has shown that "dominant" and "group" are not juxtaposed.

History
For Mosby's Medical Dictionary definition there is the use of "a social group". As a specific discipline this suggests either sociology or psychology. From social psychology is "[o]n our use of the term, a dominant group need not be a numerical majority (although it often will be)." This article is published in the "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" dated August 2005.

Eight editions of Mosby's Medical Dictionary have occurred, but only the more recent seven (1987 - 2nd to 2009 - 8th) are accessible by either Google scholar or a full web search using Google. Of these, "dominant group" is defined in and additionally occurs within another term's definition in the 8th edition only.

This suggests but does not confirm that the definition in Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition (2009), is a precising definition of the term as used in 2005, where "a social group that controls the value system and rewards in a particular society." "need not be a numerical majority (although it often will be)."

Within the article, precising definition, it is stated "a precising definition does not [contradict the lexical definition]." That is the case above.

Although the exact wording of some earlier definition of "dominant group" from either sociology or psychology has not been found, it seems likely from chronology that it includes "need not be a numerical majority (although it often will be)." in some meaningful way.

Term use
From planetary science under the subject of meteors is this use of the term "dominant group": "The dominant group in all cases are stony meteors." The article is entitled, "On the composition of meteors". The phrase "in all cases" refers to various meteor showers experienced here on Earth.

The 'meteors' article, published in 1958, states "stony meteors, i.e. 68 p.c." "among all the 217 meteors". The abbreviation "p.c." is for "per cent" or "per centage". Here there is commonality between some early sociological or psychological definition of "dominant group" as a majority and as a majority of meteors.

Precising definition
In the article precising definition, there is that "[a] precising definition is a definition that extends the lexical definition of a term for a specific purpose by including additional criteria that narrow down the set of things meeting the definition." The precising definition is usually aimed at the definiens. For Mosby's Medical Dictionary definition of "dominant group" this is "a social group that controls the value system and rewards in a particular society."

An attempt at a precising definition might be "a social group that in all cases are stony meteors". Independent of verb plurality "are" versus "is", the latter "definition" regarding "stony meteors" clearly contradicts the idea of a "social group". This suggests that the 'meteors' definition (if it can be called that) is a stipulative definition: "a type of definition in which a ... currently-existing term is given a specific meaning for the purposes of ... discussion in a given context." Similar to stipulative definitions are "[t]heoretical definitions, used extensively in science" (quote is from the article stipulative definition). From the article on theoretical definitions, such a definition "gives the meaning of a word in terms of the theories of a specific discipline."

The use of "dominant group" in the 'meteors' article does not contradict the 'majority' usage of social psychology, but is obviously at odds with "a social group", or at least the "social" portion. Further, the term's use in the 'meteors' article does seem to contradict the earliest uses of "dominant group" in sociology (aristocratic classes, 1923) but not necessarily the earliest in psychology (1930).

Sociological definition
So far in the ongoing timeline and radiance exploration, the earliest sociological use of "dominant group" occurs in the article "Art in a Democracy" from 1923: "It is but natural that when aristocratic ideals should impose themselves upon any polity the art of that polity should reflect the taste, the culture, the ways of life, and the very being of the dominant classes." and “At any rate, here is confirmation of the thesis that art voices the will of the dominant group in society.”

For the earliest discovered psychology article (1930), "a member of [the dominant group] will excel submissive persons in academic endeavors."

Neither of these uses of the term precisely excludes "need not be a numerical majority (although it often will be)." , but appear to be additional precising definitions or may be stipulative or theoretical definitions of some other definition.

In searching titles at url=http://www.jstor.org, the term "majority" has its earliest occurrence in 1672, "psychology" in 1800, "sociology" in 1845, and "dominant group" in 1877. For combinations, "dominant group" + majority, the earliest occurrence is in 1877, "dominant group" + psychology is 1884, "dominant group" + sociology is 1897, "dominant group" + majority + psychology is 1912, and "dominant group" + majority + sociology is 1912. The last two combinations occur in the same article: "Race Psychology: Standpoint and Questionnaire, With Particular Reference to the Immigrant and the Negro" in the American Journal of Sociology. "Dominant group" appears on page 756 and majority appears on 741. "Majority" appears to refer to the majority of Poles in Pozen, Poland, while "dominant group" appears to refer to the majority in the United States relative to immigrants and "the Negro" (minorities). This usage tends to confirm but does not indicate that "dominant group", majority, psychology, and sociology are associated in 1912.

If confirmed from additional sources, the association of these four terms suggests that the more recent usage for non-majority groups may be a precising on this undiscovered earlier definition to possible dominant minority groups. The earlier usage, then, involves a majority.