NAMES. 31 



An adjective, however, is capable of standing by itself as the predicate 

 of a proposition; as when we say, Snow is white; and occasionally even 

 as the subject, for we may say. White is an agreeable color. The adjec- 

 tive is often said to be so used by a grammatical ellipsis : Snow is white, 

 instead of Snow is a white object; White is an agreeable color, instead of, 

 A white color, or, The color white, is agreeable. The Greeks and Romans 

 were allowed, by the rules of their language, to employ this ellipsis uni- 

 versally in the subject as well as in the predicate of a proposition. In 

 English this can not, generally speaking, be done. We may say. The earth 

 is round ; but we can not say, Round is easily moved ; we must say, A 

 round object. This distinction, however, is rather grammatical than log- 

 ical. Since there is no difference of meaning between round, and a round 

 object, it is only custom which prescribes that on any given occasion one 

 shall be used, and not the other. We shall, therefore, without scruple, 

 speak of adjectives as names, whether in their own right, or as representa- 

 tive of the more circuitous forms of expression above exemplified. The 

 other classes of subsidiary words have no title whatever to be considered 

 as names. An adverb, or an accusative case, can not under any circum- 

 stances (except when their mere letters and syllables are spoken of) figure 

 as one of the terms of a proposition. 



Words which are not capable of being used as names, but only as parts 

 of names, Avere called by some of the schoolmen Syncategorematic terms : 

 from avv, with, and Karr^yopiu), to predicate, because it was only loith some 

 other word that they could be predicated. A word which could be used 

 either as the subject or predicate of a proposition without being accom- 

 panied by any other word, was termed by the same authorities a Cate- 

 gorematic term. A combination of one or more Categorematic, and one 

 or more Syncategorematic words, as A heavy body, or A court of justice, 

 they sometimes called a mixed term ; but this seems a needless multiplica- 

 tion of technical expressions. A mixed term is, in the only useful sense of 

 the word, Categorematic. It belongs to the class of what have been called 

 many-worded names. 



For, as one word is frequently not a name, but only part of a name, so 

 a number of words often compose one single name, and no more. These 

 words, "The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined 

 for the residence of the Abyssinian princes," forni in the estimation of the 

 logician only one name; one Categorematic term. A mode of determining 

 whether any set of words makes only one name, or more than one, is by 

 predicating something of it, and observing whether, by this predication, we 

 make only one assertion or several. Thus, when we say, John Nokcs, who 

 was the mayor of the town, died yesterday — by this predication we make 

 but one assertion; whence it appears that "John Nokes, who was the 

 mayor of the town," is no more than one name. It is true that in this 

 proposition, besides the assertion that John Nokes died yesterday, there 

 is included another assertion, namely, that John Nokes was mayor of the 

 town. But this last assertion was already made: we did not make it by 

 adding the predicate, " died yesterday." Suppose, however, that the words 

 had been, John Nokes and the mayor of the town, they would have formed 

 two names instead of one. For when we say, John Nokes and the mayor 

 of the town died yesterday, we make two assertions : one, that John Nokes 

 died yesterday ; the other, that the mayor of the town died yesterday. 



It being needless to illustrate at any greater length the subject of many- 

 worded names, we proceed to the distinctions which have been established 



