I. Placement of the Concept (6)

3.2. Divisions

The term can be considered absolutely or as part of a proposition and of the syllogism. Considered absolutely, it is divided in the same way as the concept. We will study in the third part the syllogistic term. Therefore there remains to divide the term insofar as it is part of a proposition, which is to say the terminus enuntiativus:

terminus -
a: categorematicus
a1: nomen
a2: verbum

b: syncategorematicus


a: A categorematical term (or significative) is formally under a category (whose notion we will study in chapter 3), meaning it expresses something which language signifies through itself*. Vg 'man', 'walks'. The categorematical terms are principally divided into substantive and verb **.

a1: Here's how Aristotle defines the noun (=substantive):

The noun is therefore a sound of the voice, significant by convention, which prescinds from time and no part of which is significative if considered seperately***.

We find it is the definition of the term, to which two further specifications are added:
1) The noun prescinds from temporality, insofar as it signifies a reality in the essence, prior to its motion;
2) The noun is further divisible into significative parts: for example, the substantive 'man' consists of one syllable, or three letters, but these vocal elements and graphics have no meaning by themselves.

a2 We owe to Aristotle this definition of verb, in contrast to that of noun:

The verb is that which adds time to its own meaning, in which no part is significative, if considered separately, and is always a sign of something which is said of something else.

There are two important differences from the noun:

1) The verb always 'cosignifies' time, as done by some subject: for example, 'runs' is a verb because it connotes present time as being done by the implicit subject 'he', whereas 'trip' is a noun because, even though it signifies an action, it signifies it as a thing, and not per modum actionis;
2) The verb is always a sign of something which is said of something else, because it is always from the part of the predicate, insofar as it is always attributed to a subject, linguistically implicit or explicit.

N.B.: Pronouns, used alone, are always linked back to nouns, and participles to verbs. Vg. 'I', 'he', 'running', 'thinking'.


b In opposition to the categorematical terms, syncategorematical terms aren't formally contained in a category, but are the sign of some modifications made either to some other enunciative term, or to the entire proposition. In other words, the syncategorematical term does not signify something directly per se in reality, but expresses the modification of another sign. One might even say that it is not significative, but functional. Vg. 'all' in the proposition 'all men are mortal' specifies the extension of the subject; 'and' in the proposition 'man and angel are created spirits' links two terms which constitute the global subject of the enunciation.

Bear in mind that the same vocabulary word can be taken either categorematically or syncategorematically. For example, in the proposition 'only the cat meows', 'only' is a syncategorematical term, because it limits the action of meowing to the species of cats, while in the proposition 'the only cat meows', 'only' is taken categorematically, because it signifies an isolated (from other cats) cat. therefore to determine whether a some term is categorematical or syncategorematical, one should examine if it signifies directly something denoted in reality by the proposition, or if it is functional to the modus significandi of the proposition or its terms.


* CF :

Dicitur autem dictio categorematica, quae absolute ponit rem significatam circa aliquod suppositum; ut albus circa hominem, cum dicitur homo albus. I, 31, 3, c

A categorematical term is one which ascribes absolutely its meaning to a given "suppositum"; as, for instance, "white" to man, as when we say a "white man." I, 31, 3, c

** Cf. EPH 1, lect. 1, n. 6; John of St Thomas, Ars logica, I, q. 1, art. 6, 109 b 1 - 25.


*** Aristotle, Peri Hermeneias 2, 16 a 19 - 21. The medieval translation is the following: "vox significativa secundum placitum, sine tempore, cuius nulla pars est significativa, separata". Cf. EPH 1, lect. 4, nn. 38 - 43.