§ 2. Classification of Terms

27. Classification of Terms. -- The classification of concepts is applied to terms. Let us note a few properties of the latter.

(1) Terms are common or singular. Common terms are transcendental or merely general universal, and these are generic or specific.

Generic and specific terms are univocal; transcendental terms are analogical.

This distinction is based on another classification of terms.

(2) Terms are univocal when with a common name they designate things to which an essentially identical definition corresponds. E. g., the noun animal is applied to a man and an ox in an identical sense, either of the two being an animate substance endowed with feeling.

Equivocal terms designate with a common name diverse things the concepts of which are different. E. g. the noun dog is applied to an animal and a constellation.

Analogical terms designate with the same name things the corresponding concepts of which are partly the same and partly different. Thus, when we say of bodies and of spirits that they occupy a portion of space, the words occupy space have not an identical sense in the two cases, but an analogical sense. Analogy is expressed by metaphor.

(3) Terms, like concepts, are simple or complex.

(4) They are concrete or abstract. The word white is a concrete term; the word whiteness, an abstract term.

(5) Terms are positive or negatives e. g., death, immortality. -- A positive term may convey a negative idea; a negative term, a positive idea.

(6) Terms are direct or reflex: e. g., substance, man, are direct terms; genus, species are reflex.

(7) Categorematic terms have a complete sense in themselves, and can by themselves play the part of subject or attribute (e. g., man); syncategorematic terms have a complete sense only through their union with another term (e.g., none, all).