" : 



SYLLABLE. 



SYLLOGISM. 



951 



mentioned are said to be worn on the left side. The parazonium 

 appears to have been the insigne or sword of office of a military 

 tribune. (Martial, xiv. 29 ; Raderus, ' Comment.,' in loc. ; and Pitisc., 

 ' Lexicon Antiq. Homan.') 



Other Ancient Sieordt For the swords of other nations of antiquity, 



iikinsons ' Antient Egyptians;' for the Assyrian, the works of 



Layard and Botta ; for the axinimts, or Persian aword, and that of 



other Eastern people, Leake, ' Athens,' ii. ; and for the swords of the 



Gauls, Livy, xxii. 46, and Diodorus, v. 30. 



In the British Museum are four ancient bronze swords, three of 

 which have cut-and-thrust blades, varying in length from 10 to 25 

 inches, and in breadth from 1 4 to 2 inches. Another, considered to 

 be Etniacan, is bound with gold wire round the handle, and is about 

 13 inches long. In Montfaucon (' Antiq.,' vii.) are engravings of three, 

 two f which, as he states, measured a foot and a half (French), and 

 the other 30 inches in length. In the Museo Borbonico, vol. v., pi. 

 xxxix., is an engraving of one having two rings on its scabbard, which 

 is of wood, covered with plates of metal, and studded with brass; 

 a handle of another is finished with an eagle's head, and other varieties 

 are shown in the same work. 



SYLLABLE (<rwAAa/H). A syllable consists of one or more ele- 

 mentary sounds of a language uttered in one emission of voice. The 

 n / is an example of a syllable consisting of but one elementary 

 sound; and the syllable trange is an example consisting of several 

 elementary sounds articulated (joined) together. Words which consist 

 of one syllable are termed monosyllabic ; those consisting of two are 

 termed dissyllabic ; those of three, trisyllabic ; and those of more than 

 three are indefinitely termed polysyllabic. 



Spoken language is a system of audible signs for the expression of 

 thought, and written language is a system of signs to express spoken 

 language, so that written language is two removes from thought. 

 Syllables, both as words and as parts of words, belong both to spoken 

 and written language. 



In a pronounced syllable two distinct things are observable, namely, 



elementary structure ; and, 2nd, the musical properties of the 



voice, consisting of those distinctions of sound which are described 



mi'lrr the general terms pitch, loudness, and quality. Thus in the 



in /we observe the elementary structure to be the diphthongal 



vowel /, as heard in the word isle ; and we observe also whether the 



KvlUMe be laid or sung, that is, whether the condition of voice belongs 



to speech or to song : an accurate observer also perceives the precise 



degree of pitch and loudness and the character of the quality of voice. 



time which a syllable occupies in pronunciation is termed its 



I n solemn and stately discourse the quantities of syllables 



are extended beyond their ordinary length ; while in rapid colloquy 



they an somewhat shortened. The ordinary quantity of a syllable, 



r extended nor protracted, is the sum total of the quan- 



>f its constituent elementary sounds : thus the quantity of the 



syllable nine is the sum total of the quantities of its elementary sounds 



, /', of isle, and . 



>rds of more than one syllable, one of them is always made 

 more conspicuous to the ear than the other, by what is termed stress 

 or accent Stress is produced either by an abrupt percussion of voice, 

 as in the word pepper, or by an extended quantity on a swelling loud- 

 neat of voice, as in the word amaze. The stressed syllable of a word is 

 invariably that which receives the modification of voice expressive of 

 name and feeling, called emphasis. 



The metrical arrangement of language depends on the quantity and 

 lima of syllables, both of which are inherent ; while the pitch, loud- 

 new, and quality of voice in which the syllables are uttered are aoci- 

 I. and belong to the thought and feeling of the speaker. 



ling words into syllables is a different o]>eration according to 

 the object in view, thus : 1. When a word is pronounced in widely 

 separated syllables, to enable a child to appreciate each, as in uttering 

 the word {irorided, thus, pn-n-ded, by which means n child readily 

 apprehenda each successive syllable of the word ; 2. When a word is 

 analysed into its component parts, in order to exhibit its etymology, 

 and thus lead to a clear apprehension of its signification, as a whole 



:{ that of its parts, as in dividing the word thermometer, 

 thus, tkermn-mtter ; 3. To divide a word into its syllables, to enable 

 another to write it with correctness, as the word barometer, thus, *a- 

 ro-me-ter. 



SYLLniilSM . rru\\oytafu>!). The object and character of logic are 

 explaim-'l uinl.T the word OBOANOX; the position of this article in the 

 present work is explained in LOGIC. Every sentence in which different 

 assertions are combined to produce another and a final assertion, is 

 ;i syllogism, a collection of syllogisms, or a mass of words with- 

 out meaning ; and when we separate the constituent assertions, and 

 write the whole under the forms of logic, we are not thereby ceasing 

 ider the sentence which contains those assertions, or, as many 

 . dealing with a new species of ratiocination. All that is called 

 ing, and which cannot be made syllogistic, is not reasoning at 

 all ; and all which cannot easily be made syllogistic, is obscure ; for 

 ii is the simple form in which the act of reasoning is an act 

 ..[ intuition. 



Aristotle defines syllogism thus : " Syllogism is speech or language 

 in whii-h -.rt.iin things being assumed, something different from what 

 ii assumt-1 r.-mlt* l>y virtue of the assumption ; and, by virtue of the 



assumption, I mean it results through the assumption ; and, by 

 ' through the assumption ' I mean that no external term is required 

 in order to there being a necessary result." (' Analyt. Prior.' i. 1.) 



So easy indeed is the deduction, when the premises are properly dis- 

 posed as preparatory to a syllogism, that many persons doubt the utility 

 of the syllogism altogether. With these we are not now arguing ; we 

 shall only observe that he must be fortunate in the clearness of his 

 mind, who, knowing the logical mode, is never obliged to have recourse 

 to it to destroy ambiguity or heighten evidence ; and particularly so 

 in his opponents, who, in verbal or written controversy, never finds it 

 necessary to employ it in trying their arguments. The syllogism is the 

 instrument of self-examination, and the weapon of last resort in dis- 

 pute ; and a bad syllogism, with one of the premises implied only, and 

 not expressed, is the first resource of fallacy ; which last is sometimes 

 even allowed to remain unrefuted, by neglect of placing it in a logical 

 form. To bring forward the suppressed premiss is the visible destruc- 

 tion of every such argument which is logically bad. As an instance, 

 take the following in a letter from Cardan to Tartalea : " Neither am I 

 moved with envy, for if you are either equal to, or less than myself, I 

 have no cause for it ; and, if you be greater in this art, I ought to 

 endeavour to equal you, and not to speak evil of you." This is meant 

 for reasoning, and there are two syllogisms with suppressed premises, 

 or rather two sorites (a term presently explained), with a suppressed 

 premiss in each. In one case Cardan assumes that he does not envy 

 Tartalea because he need not ; in the other, that he does not because 

 he ought to do otherwise : if he meant to assume and assert that he 

 never did anything which he had no need to do, and always did every- 

 thing which he ought to do, his reasoning is logical ; but if he would 

 have hesitated to make these assertions, he was then writing fallacy. 

 In justice to Cardan's logic, however, it is but fair to say, that he was 

 not the man to hesitate at either assertion. [CARDAN, in Bioo. Div.] 



Every sentence in which the conclusion is a necessary consequence 

 of previous assertions contained in that same sentence, is a syllogism, 

 provided that the conclusion be obtained from two distinct assertions, 

 and two only. Thus, " Some AS are BS, for every B is A,' is not a syl- 

 logism, though logically true. [CONVERSE.] Every assertion may be 

 reduced to one of four forms, the universal affirmative, the universal 

 negative, the particular affirmative, and the particular negative. From 

 these, by combination, all syllogisms are derived ; and the laws of 

 combination, and the manner of expressing them, constituted that 

 branch of science which is now often turned into ridicule, particularly 

 as to its notation, and the strange and uncouth words by which the 

 species of syllogisms were denoted. The following letters always 

 signify the several species of propositions : 



A, the universal affirmative ; every x is Y. 



K, the universal negative ; no x is Y. 



I, the particular affirmative ; some xs are YS. 



o, the particular negative ; some xs are not YS. 



Since every conclusion must be drawn from the comparison of two 

 things with a third, a syllogism consists of two propositions, in each of 

 which the same term occurs compared with another : this term is 

 called the middle term. Thus, in 



Every Y is x, 



Every z is Y, 



Therefore Every z is x, 



Y, the subject of the first assertion, and the predicate of the second, is 

 the middle term. The two first assertions are the premises, the third 

 is the condition. The predicate of the conclusion is called the major 

 term ; the subject of the conclusion the minor term : and the major or 

 minor premiss is that which contains the major or minor term of the 

 conclusion. The major premiss is always written first. 



The order of the terms in the premises and conclusion must be 

 either 



I. II. III. IV. 



vx .\Y YX XY 



ZY ZY YZ YZ 



J!X zx zx zx; 



and these are called the four figures. The three first are in Aristotle, 

 the fourth was by tradition ascribed to Galen, and was called Galenic. 

 In the first figure the middle term is the subject of the major, and the 

 predicate of the minor ; in the second, the predicate of both ; in the 

 third, the subject of both ; in the fourth, the predicate of the minor 

 and the subject of the major. Every particular case of a figure is called 

 a mood ; and since either of the premises may be either of the four 

 species of propositions, A, E, I, o, it follows that there are sixteen moods 

 in each figure, or sixty-four possible moods in all. But of these, many 

 are inconclusive, and many moods which admit of conclusion in one 

 figure do not in another. Thus, the mood in the example above is AA, 

 and if we apply it in the four figures, we have 



Every Y is x Every x is Y Every Y is x j Every x is Y 

 Every z is Y Every z is Y Every Y is z | Every Y is z. 



The first has a conclusion : every z is x. The second has none ; 

 that is, for anything to the contrary contained in the premises, we may 

 either say every z is x, no z is x, some zs are xs, or some zs are not xs. 



