Tag Archives: term of art

Term of Art: Adaptive Skills

adaptive skills: Daily living skills that a person needs to be able to live, work, and play independently. There are 10 skills that are included in this area: communication, self-care, home living, social skills, leisure,, health and safety, self-direction, functional academics, community use, and work.

Adaptive skills are assessed in the person’s typical environment, in all aspects of an individual’s life. A person with limited intellectual functioning but who does not have have limits in adaptive skill areas may not be diagnosed as having mental retardation. By law, such a person is not retarded.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Term of Art: Indefinite Pronoun

“Indefinite Pronoun: A pronoun that refers to an unspecified person (anybody) or thing (something).”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Term of Art: Context Clues

“context clues: Using information in a sentence or paragraph surrounding a new term to help the reader understand that term. There are several items to look for when searching for context clues, including

  • a punctuation mark (such as a comma or dash) that may signal that information is being presented about the new term
  • key words: words such as or and that is may signal that definition is to follow.
  • Definition: sometimes the meaning of a new word may be made clear by reading the entire paragraph in which it appears.

Learning to use context clues to gain meaning is an important reading skill. A student who is able to use the context to identify an unknown word, grasp the meaning of a word, or comprehend a passage read, will become a good reader.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Term of Art: Hermeneutics

“hermeneutics: Movement in the philosophy of science, according to which the task of the human sciences is to elucidate the structure of the social institutions underlying behavior. Thus the aim of linguistics, as one human (and therefore ‘hermeneutic’) science, is to elucidate the rules of language, seen as rules that constitute such an institution.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Term of Art: Gerund

“Gerund: The -ing (form of a verb that functions as a noun: Hiking is good exercise. She was praised for her playing.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Zeitgeist

“Zeitgeist: (Ger., spirit of the time) In art terms, refers to certain elements characterizing the mood, thinking, and resulting art production or a period or moment.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Term of Art: Direct Object

“Direct Object: A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a transitive verb. Pearson publishes books.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Term of Art: Double Bind

“Double bind: An inescapable dilemma involving conflicting demands that allow no right or satisfactory response. An influential theory of the etiology of schizophrenia was put forward by the English-born US anthropologist Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) and several co-authors in an article in the journal Behavioral Science in 1956, according to which schizophrenia is caused by parenting styles that create double binds for children, as when a mother complains to her son for not giving her a kiss but recoils physically whenever the child does kiss her. This theory was enthusiastically adopted by the Scottish psychiatrist Ronald D(avid) Laing (1927-89) and others during the 1970s and 1980s, but empirical evidence has not been forthcoming in support of the theory, despite its attractiveness.”

Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Term of Art: Cultural Determinant

“A factor arising from racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic background that may systematically influence test performance on a specific assessment instrument.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Historical Term: Boss

“’boss’: Phenomenon often found in US politics, but not restricted to the USA, in which the archetypal ‘boss’ is a politician who achieves power locally by corrupt or devious means and then proceeds to strengthen his ‘machine’ (i.e. his supporters) that has helped him to power. His supporters will be nominated to public offices, including the judiciary and police force, and will receive lucrative public contracts. The ‘boss’, susceptible to bribery, will condone lawbreaking if it suits his purposes. He may assume high office himself or might prefer to remain in the background.

The most famous ‘bosses’ include Tweed of Tammany Hall, New York; Platt of New York; Huey Long of Louisiana, and Daley of Chicago. Flagrant examples of ‘bossism’ are now rare. It probably flourished largely because of political apathy and nativity [sic] among large urban immigrant communities and rural populations.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.