Functions, types, means of expression, and opportunities for the identification of definitions in scientific texts

Resumo

This article is a review of some current ideas about the structure, functions, and types of definitions as a form of knowledge expression typical of scientific communication. Special emphasis is placed on linguistic models of definition and their typologies based on structural and content-related peculiarities. A number of cases are considered to show that it may be especially difficult technically to identify structurally modified definitions that deviate from the common three-part structure and definitions expressed in more than one sentence.