Analyzing Themes and Details: Developing Vocabulary

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 Overview:

You will learn:

  • how to determine the meaning of words and phrases, including how an author uses and refines meaning of terms across a text

Reading for Meaning

Understanding how a particular author or speaker uses words and phrases is important to understanding the meaning of the text or document.

Sometimes the meaning is not immediately clear — either because the term (word or phrase) is unknown, or because that author is using the term in a new way.

Meaning also becomes clear across historical documents when an idea or call to action becomes part of the national discussion.

Definition

As you know, a dictionary will help you determine the meaning of words or phrases. One thing to check out, though, is how the term is used, or its connotation. Many dictionaries have sample sentences that give examples of usage and provide more context.

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Reading for Context

Over the course of a text, the meaning of a peculiar phrase can become more clear as the author reuses the term, adds more explanation, or provides more description of the event.

Context, or information in the surrounding text, can help make sense of the term and its meaning.

Checking for Connotation

Another thing to look for when you come across an unfamiliar term is connotation. Connotation is how a word is used. It carries shades of meaning.

For example, “riot,” “assembly,” “mob,” and “gathering” all have the same general meaning (denotation), but have different connotations. “Riot” and “mob” both have negative connotations – bad things happen when there is a riot or a mob. “Assembly” and “gathering” are generally seen as neutral or even positive in their meaning.

Connotations can carry emotional meaning or express point of view.

Historical Usage

Another thing to be aware of is that the meaning of words and phrases can change over time.

When reading a historical document, it is important to understand that what people said over one hundred years ago, may have a different meaning today.

The process of “change over time” is history.

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Historical Usage

Here’s an example from Amanda Green’s article, “15 Wor​ds That Don’t Mean What They Used To,” from Mental Floss:

“Bully used to mean: Superb, wonderful”

“When Theodore Roosevelt referred to the presidency as a bully pulpit, he wasn’t talking about name-calling, harassment, or beating anyone with a big stick. He was praising the social change he might shape in office. Bully for him!”

Historical References

Terms in history also carry meaning when they refer to previous events; this extra layer of meaning comes from the event’s significance.

For example, the phrase “Burn, baby, burn” is associated with the 1965 Watts Riots. Six days of violence ensued in the poor neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles after an African American motorist was arrested.

Since then, the phrase, “Burn, baby, burn,” is sometimes used as a statement about taking power into one’s own hands, sometimes at great cost.

Literary Devices

Reading for meaning also means looking for metaphors, similes, and other literary devices.

Frequently, authors try to pack a lot of meaning into a few words. It’s like poetry.

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Author’s Intent

Finally, the author of a text may have a particular usage for a word or phrase that the reader must discover.

This is often the case in literary texts, speeches, and persuasive articles. The author may want to be memorable, create an emotional impact, or explore an idea in more depth.

Reading a text thoroughly and examining its background can assist you when you determine meaning. 

Determining Meaning

Now that you have tools to understand the meaning of words and phrases at your disposal, you will examine several texts from the Civil Rights Movement to determine meaning.

Determining how an author uses and refines the meaning of terms across a text not only adds to the understanding of the text’s content, but it also enriches your historical knowledge.

The Structure of a Text

Most persuasive texts have a beginning, middle, and end: at these points the main idea is often repeated.

With a speech, more than a written document, it is important for the speaker to reiterate his main points so the audience can follow along.

Sometimes an author foreshadows the main point by using analogous, or similar terms. Look for literary devices as well as historical references.

Determining Meaning

To practice examining how the meaning of words and phrases are developed and refined through a text, you will examine the ​1968 Kerner Report. This report, the product of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders formed by President Johnson in 1967, researched the history of and reasons for “civil disorders” in the United States since 1964.

Example – Definition & Determining Meaning

What is a “civil disorder”? Investigating “civil disorders” was the main charge of the committee. From 1967 to 1968, the term made sense, however today the phrase “civil disorder” can seem rather vague.

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The legal defi​nition of “civil disorder” is, “any public disturbance involving acts of violence by assemblages of three or more persons, which causes an immediate danger of or results in damage or injury to the property or person of any other individual.”

This hints at what the Kerner Commission was investigating, but the meaning of the phrase is still not entirely clear.

Example – Determining Meaning of a Term Across Texts

The use of “civil disorder” by the Kerner Report can help you, as a reader, determine the meaning of the term.

Go to this excerpted version of t​he Kerner Report and read the “Introduction” of the report summary. The term “civil disorder” appears several times. Look to see how the term is used.

Example – Context & Determining Meaning

The first sentence of the Kerne​r Report indicates that something happened in the summer of 1967 as “racial disorders to American cities” arrived.

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There is a clue here: the “disorders” are not just civil, they’re “racial.” This indicates
that something happened between people of different races. 

As you read the rest of the section you’ll find some additional context clues about the meaning of “civil disorder.” One of those clues is the definition and use of the term “ghetto.” These civil disorders involved ghettos, which are defined in the footnote as, “an area within a city characterized by poverty and acute social disorganization, and inhabited by members of a racial or ethnic group under conditions of involuntary segregation.”

Connotation & Determining Meaning

Another clue to the meaning of “civil disorder” is the connotation of the term as expressed in the Ke​rner Report’s Introduction: “they brought with them shock, fear and bewilderment to the nation.”

Another clue appears in the second sentence, “…the worst came during a two-week period in July, first in Newark and then in Detroit…”

Both of these statements indicate that “civil disorders” are scary and unwelcome events –
this has a negative connotation!

Historical Usage & Determining Meaning

Civil disorder” is a term that has been used throughout the history of the United States. The term may be known more familiarly as “civil unrest.”

According to the text, the “civil disorders” are “riots.” “Riot” is a term that helps to fully define the meaning of “civil disorder.”

Historical References & Determining Meaning

The second sentence of the Introduction of the Ker​ner Report indicates that there were civil disorders in Newark and Detroit in July 1967.

An Internet search for “civil disorder” in 1967 for each town yields coverage on the  Ne​wark Riot and the De​triot Riot.

These historical references have clarified that “civil disorders” in the context of the Kerner Report are “urban race riots.”

Literary Devices & Determining Meaning

The Kern​er Report uses some literary devices to expand upon  the meaning of “civil disorders” by discussing their possible impact.

Examine this sentence: “To pursue our present course will involve the continuing polarization of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values.”

While exaggerated, perhaps, the Kerner Commission makes it clear that continued civil disorders will contribute to “deepening racial division.” The Commission urges that “Violence and destruction must be ended—in the streets of the ghetto and in the lives of people.”

Author Intent & Determining Meaning

Finally, intent of the authors, or why the Ker​ner Report was written, makes it clear that they are responding to the “civil disorder” or riots in urban areas.

“This deepening racial division is not inevitable…Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution.”

Even though they do not expressly define “civil disorder,” the authors of the report make it clear that the urban race riots were something that should be solved and that should never happen again. This may explain the use of a more general term like “disorder” rather than a stronger term such as “riot.”

Various Ways to Determine Meaning

By tracing the usage of an unfamiliar phrase, you have discovered how authors can use and refine meanings of terms across a text.

In the case of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders’ Report, you discovered the meaning of “civil disorder” as used in the text.

As a result of the Commission’s findings, President Johnson declared the War on Poverty in the U.S. and passed another Civil Rights Act in 1968. This law, better known as the Fair Housing Act, addressed a fundamental economic need: housing.

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Conclusion

You learned:

  • How to determine the meaning of words and phrases, including how an author uses and refines meaning of terms across a text

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