exemplifying • gary e. davis • berkeley


	Project	a philological sense of Our evolving

	exemplifying gary e. davis	September 26, 2024

An exemplar may be an unremarkable instance (a mere example of a kind) or
a model instance (or in between: somewhat valuable, nearly a model). A standard definition of ‘exemplar’ may be ambivalent about the matter: “a : a model or ex-
ample” (M-W Unabridged). An item may be an example of a model, or a model
is described without a known example. Exemplification may be metonymic, meta-
phoric, synecdochal (better than ‘synecdochical’), or ironic: kinds of tropal distance between example and model (and “distance” there is metaphoric of
difference).

The model may exist (e.g., a given master teacher as model), or the model may be an ideal (by definition—by professional standard) expressed without a known example.

Another ambivalent definition is that the exemplar is “b : a typical or standard specimen.” A class or set may have representative instances (typical of the kind); or an instance may be the standard one (defining the kind). A faculty has typical members, but a master teacher may be the principle one, thus the leading one,
the principal.

next—> degrees of exemplarity