(19) Show that there is some ground for believing all terms to be relative.
(20) Is army a relative term? If “army” were used so as to be distributive in nature would it then be general or collective?
(21) Why should the pronoun be ignored by the logician?
(22) Show the difference between thing and subject.
(23) Argue to the effect that no term can be non-connotative.
CHAPTER 5.
THE EXTENSION AND INTENSION OF TERMS.
1. TWO-FOLD FUNCTION OF CONNOTATIVE TERMS.
(See [page 52].)
It has been indicated that a connotative term is one which possesses the double function of signifying a subject as well as an attribute. It may be observed here that an attribute of a notion is any mark, property or characteristic of that notion. Attribute, then, represents quality, relation or quantity. By a subject is meant anything which possesses attributes. Most subjects stand for objects and most attributes are qualities; consequently, for the sake of simplicity, we may use subject and object interchangeably; likewise, attribute and quality.
A connotative term, therefore, denotes an object at the same time it implies a quality. To illustrate: The symbol man stands for the various individual men of the world, such as Lincoln, Washington, Alfred the Great, etc., or for certain qualities like rationality, power of speech and power of locomotion. The connotative term teacher may be used to denote Socrates, Pestalozzi, Thomas Arnold, or connote such qualities as ability to instruct, sympathy, and scholarship. The term planet stands for such objects as Venus, Earth, and Mars, and for such qualities as rotation upon axis, revolution about sun, and opaque or semi-opaque bodies. In each of thethree illustrations the term is employed in the two-fold sense of denoting objects and of implying qualities.