§ 1. Meaning of Judgment and of Proposition
29. The Judgment and the Proposition. -- The proposition is the expression of the judgment and consists in enunciating (asserting) one thing of another. "Propositio est oratio enunciativa", apophansis, says Aristotle.
All speech signifies something -- "omnis oratio est significativa." phasis, phônê, sêmantikê -- but not all speech enunciates some thing. The noun signifies something; it does not enunciate. For instance, "prayer" is a noun, it is not an assertion.{1}
"A first enunciative phrase has the form of an affirmation, another has the form of a negation; those which do not present this simple character are, nevertheless, all composed of these elementary enunciations."{2} The enunciation (or assertion) consists of two terms -- the subject and attribute -- joined by the verb to be.
In view of a property which proceeds from the notion of the proposition, we may also define it: a true or false speech.
{1} Aristotle, Perihermeneias, c. IV. 25
{2} Ibid., c. V.