| 释义 |
symbolic, a. (n.)|sɪmˈbɒlɪk|
[ad. late L. symbolicus, a. Gr. συµβολικός, f. σύµβολον symbol n.1: see -ic. Cf. F. symbolique (from 16th c.), It., Sp. sim-, Pg. symbolico.]
A. adj.
1. a. Having the character of a symbol or representative sign or mark; constituting or serving as a symbol (of something).
1680Pleydell Serm. Funeral Glanvill (1681) 2 It may be well doubted whether their symbolick divinity were not design'd rather to conceal their own ignorance. 1704Nelson Fest. & Fasts vi. (1739) 78 The Apostles..laid their Hands upon them; an ancient Symbolic Rite of Investiture and Consecration. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. §11. 41 The Old Testament..is Prophetic and Symbolic of the Revelations of the New. 1864Pusey Lect. Daniel (1876) 411 The symbolic animal. 1871R. W. Dale Commandm. ii. 58 Jewish priests who offered a mere symbolic sacrifice might properly wear symbolic robes. 1899W. R. Inge Chr. Mysticism vii. 254 All voluntary external acts are symbolic of (that is, vitally connected with) internal states.
b. Gram. (See quot., and cf. presentive.)
1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue 195 The Symbolic words are those which by themselves present no meaning to the mind, and which depend for their intelligibility on a relation to some presentive word or words.
2. a. Consisting of, denoted by, or involving the use of written symbols or significant characters.
1656Hobbes Six Lessons Wks. 1845 VII. 264 You demonstrate nothing to anybody but those who understand your symbolic tongue. 1669Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. xi. 64 The Egyptian Language..was twofold, Symbolic and Hieroglyphic, or Simple. 1741Warburton Div. Legat. iv. iv. 144 Symbolic Writing, the more it receded from the Proper Hieroglyphic, the more it became obscure. 1805–17R. Jameson Char. Min. (ed. 3) 184 All this description may be exhibited in symbolic language. 1839De Morgan in Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. VII. 173 The method of giving meaning to the primary symbols, and of interpreting all subsequent symbolic results. 1901F. S. Dellenbaugh N.-Americans of Yesterday 69 In Symbolic Writing, a single characteristic part or trait serves to represent the whole object; thus the track of an animal will stand for the animal itself.
b. Math. Denoted by, relating to, or involving some special set or system of symbols, esp. simple or brief symbols used instead of fuller or more lengthy expressions, or symbols of operation treated as themselves subject to operation like symbols of quantity.
1846Sir W. R. Hamilton in Camb. & Dubl. Math. Jrnl. I. 49 Calling this act of connection of symbols, the operation of addition; the added symbols, summands; and the resulting symbol, a sum; we may..say..that this symbolic sum of lines represents the total (or final) effect of all those successive rectilinear motions..which are represented by the several summands. 1886J. C. Fields in Amer. Jrnl. Math. VIII. 367 (heading) Symbolic Finite Solutions and Solutions by Definite Integrals of the Equation dny / dxn = xmy. 1888W. W. Johnson ibid. X. 94 (heading) Symbolic Treatment of Exact Linear Differential Equations.
c. symbolic logic, logic that employs a special technical notation of symbols; formal or mathematical logic (see mathematical a. 1 e). Hence symbolic logician.
1856A. De Morgan in Trans. Cambr. Philos. Soc. IX. 83, I think it reasonably probable that the advance of symbolic logic will lead to a calculus of opposite relations, for mere inference, as general as that of + and - in algebra. 1881Venn (title) Symbolic Logic. 1903B. Russell Princ. Math. ii. 10 Symbolic or Formal Logic—I shall use these terms as synonyms—is the study of the various general types of deduction. The word symbolic designates the subject by an accidental characteristic, for the employment of mathematical symbols, here as elsewhere, is merely a theoretically irrelevant convenience. Ibid. vi. 74 By symbolic logicians..this will be felt as a reactionary view. 1933C. A. Mace Princ. Logic iv. 64 The fact that symbolic logicians have not generally recognized this form compels us to introduce a symbol that is not in common use. 1941[see mathematical logic s.v. mathematical a. 1 e]. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Dec. 729/3 Professor Sparshott quotes the dying symbolic logician—‘complete rigour at last!’ 1968Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 239/2 The final study to be reviewed concerns diagnosis by the computer using a combination of symbolic logic..and similarity coefficients. 1973Sci. Amer. Apr. 101/3 First Frege, then Peano and finally Russell turned to symbolic logic as a potential source of the fundamental notions necessary for a theory of natural number.
d. symbolic address (Computers), an address consisting of a symbol chosen by the programmer for its convenience; so symbolic addressing.
1953Trans. IRE Professional Group on Electronic Computers Mar. 10/1 Programs for automatic calculators can be written with symbolic addresses instead of actual addresses. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xix. 308 In automatic coding..each data item receives a name, or symbolic address. 1977Gloss. Terms Data Processing (B.S.I.) vii. 13/1 Symbolic addressing. 1981M. E. Walsh Understanding Computers iii. 48 This process of using mnemonic instructions..and symbolic addressing and having them translated into machine language is called assembling a program.
3. a. Expressed, denoted, or conveyed by means of a symbol or set of symbols; concerning, involving, or depending upon representation by symbols; also, dealing with or using symbols.
symbolic delivery: see symbolical 3 b.
1684Sir G. Mackenzie Inst. Law Scot. ii. i. (1694) 56 The..most ordinary way of acquiring of Property is by Tradition,..and this translation is made either by the real delivery of the thing it self, as of a Horse, a Cup &c. or by a Symbolick delivery. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. iii, In Death too, in the Death of the Just, as the last perfection of a Work of Art, may we not discern symbolic meaning? 1846Trench Mirac. xxxiii. (1862) 460 An allegorical, or more truly a symbolic, meaning underlying the literal. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. iii. i. (1874) 264 The Symbolic power, which enables us to represent objects by signs. 1861Trench Comm. Ep. Churches Asia 26 What we may call the mystical or symbolic interest..predominates over the actual. 1899W. R. Inge Chr. Mysticism vii. 257 There are two views of this sacrament which the ‘plain man’ has always found much easier to understand than the symbolic view which is that of our Church. 1908R. H. Strachan in Expositor Feb. 114 Apart from the much larger question of the symbolism of the Gospel, he [sc. John] displays what might be called the ‘symbolic’ mind, a mind that is especially open to any suggestion of spiritual truth conveyed by the actual facts.
b. Art and Literature. Having the characteristics of symbolism (see symbolism 1 d).
1910B. W. Wells Modern Fr. Lit. xiii. 485 Here [sc. in ‘La petite paroisse’] first Daudet adopted the symbolic method that Zola and Ibsen also use with such effect.
c. symbolic interaction (Social Psychol. and Sociol.), the sharing and use of common symbols in human communication; freq. attrib.; also symbolic interactionist, an adherent of the theory that the child is formed into a social being through learning the common meaning attached to symbols by his or her group; also attrib. or as adj.; hence symbolic interactionism.
1937H. Blumer in E. P. Schmidt Man & Society 153 The group of social psychologists who may be conveniently labelled ‘symbolic interactionists’. Ibid. 174 It is clearly an instance of the symbolic interaction. Ibid. 191 The stimulus-response approach is interested in reaction; the symbolic interaction view in action. 1961D. Martindale Nature & Types Sociol. Theory xiv. 339 The symbolic interaction school took shape in America, primarily under the influence of pragmatism. 1967Sociol. Q. VIII. 149 (title) On the edge of rapprochement: was Durkheim moving toward the perspective of symbolic interaction? 1969H. Blumer (title) Symbolic interactionism. Ibid. i. 1 George Herbert Mead who, above all others, laid the foundations of the symbolic interactionist approach. 1972S. Mennell in Cox & Dyson 20th-Cent. Mind III. v. 160 Another kind of social action theory has also been influential, especially in the last decade. It is usually known as ‘symbolic interactionism’, and has deep roots in American sociology. 1977J. A. Kotarba in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. ix. 272 The concept of illness as deviant behavior..is built upon the labeling theory of the symbolic interactionist perspective. 1979Human Relations Sept. 803 Symbolic interaction stresses the personal definition of the situation, while frame analysis seeks to uncover the background assumptions within which interaction takes place. 1982Jrnl. Learning Disabilities XV. 347 Using a symbolic interaction perspective, the study focused on the extent of agreement..in referring children..to a university clinic for psycho⁓educational assessment.
4. Pertaining to or of the nature of a formal creed or confession of faith (symbol n.1 1).
1867Chambers's Encycl., Symbolic Books, in the language of the church, is a phrase that signifies the same as Creeds and Confessions. 1887Ch. Q. Rev. Apr. 18 It is implied in the Augsburg Confession,..the Confessio Gallicana, and..several cognate symbolic documents.
B. n. [after G. symbolik.]
a. = symbolics 2. rare—0.
b. A symbolic word (see 1 b above). rare—1.
1864Webster, Symbolic, n... That branch of historic theology which treats of creeds; symbolism. 1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue 210 Symbolics. |
