Key notes on the Words and Terms in Logic

An argument consists of declarative sentences. We have also noted that the declarative sentences express propositions. As a sentence consists of words, so also a proposition consists of terms.

As words are the constituent of sentences, so also terms are the constituent propositions. Consider, for example, the proposition: “Crows are black”. It consists of a subject term “crows” and a predicate term “black” joined together by a copula “are”.

Similarly, the proposition “All men are mortal” has a subject term “man” and predicate term “mortal”, categorical proposition expresses a relation between a subject term and a predicate term.

A term consists of one or many words. For example, in the proposition “All scientists who are famous are sincere and hardworking persons”, the subject term is “scientists who a famous” and the predicate term is “sincere and hardworking persons”. Here a group of won together constitute the subject term. The predicate term too consists of several words in the example. The terms in this proposition are many-worded terms.

A term constitutes a unit of meaning in the proposition. It expresses a single idea. The terms in a categorical proposition can be best understood as being about classes and individual; a term signifies either a class of individuals or an individual.

For example, in the proposition “Man is mortal” it is asserted that the class “man” is included in the class of “mortals”. Here both the terms are class terms and they can be said to be expressing general ideas. The proposition “Asok is mortal” states that an individual (Asok) belongs to the class of mortals. Here “Asok’ expresses a singular idea.

Some words can be independently used as a subject or a predicate term in a proposition. A word, which by itself can designate a term, is called a categorematic word. Names of individuals and things, and words designating classes and properties are categorematic.

For example, ‘Socrates’, ‘man’, ‘mortal’ are categorematic words, since these words can be independently used as subject or predicate term. Some words cannot be independently used as a term, but can occur as a part of a many-worded term. Words like ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘of’ and ‘on’ belong to this category of words. These are called syncategorematic words. Words like ‘hurray!’ and ‘oh!’ cannot be used to signify a term either independently or in conjunction with other words. These are categorematic words.

We can now sum up our discussion. A term is always a component in a proposition. In a categorical proposition a term is either a subject or a predicate of the proposition. It can be single-worded or many-worded. In a categorical proposition, a term signifies a thing or individual, or a class of things or individuals.