
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- I Medieval philosophical literature
- II Aristotle in the middle ages
- III The old logic
- IV Logic in the high middle ages: semantic theory
- 7 The origins of the theory of the properties of terms
- 8 The Oxford and Paris traditions in logic
- 9 The semantics of terms
- 10 The semantics of propositions
- 11 Syncategoremata, exponibilia, sophismata
- 12 Insolubilia
- 13 Speculative grammar
- V Logic in the high middle ages: propositions and modalities
- VI Metaphysics and epistemology
- VII Natural philosophy
- VIII Philosophy of mind and action
- IX Ethics
- X Politics
- XI The defeat, neglect, and revival of scholasticism
- Index nominum
- Index rerum
- References
9 - The semantics of terms
from IV - Logic in the high middle ages: semantic theory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- I Medieval philosophical literature
- II Aristotle in the middle ages
- III The old logic
- IV Logic in the high middle ages: semantic theory
- 7 The origins of the theory of the properties of terms
- 8 The Oxford and Paris traditions in logic
- 9 The semantics of terms
- 10 The semantics of propositions
- 11 Syncategoremata, exponibilia, sophismata
- 12 Insolubilia
- 13 Speculative grammar
- V Logic in the high middle ages: propositions and modalities
- VI Metaphysics and epistemology
- VII Natural philosophy
- VIII Philosophy of mind and action
- IX Ethics
- X Politics
- XI The defeat, neglect, and revival of scholasticism
- Index nominum
- Index rerum
- References
Summary
Two senses of ‘term’
Medieval philosophers and logicians used the word ‘term’ (terminus) in several senses, two of which are especially pertinent to this discussion. Strictly speaking, a term is what is subjected to the predicate or predicated of the subject in an ordinary categorical proposition – the subject term or the predicate term, the two ends (termini) of the proposition. In this sense whole phrases may be terms, but only certain sorts of words – nouns, adjectives, and verbs – can serve by themselves as terms. Less strictly, and in the later Middle Ages more prevalently, a term is any word at all, regardless of propositional context. In this discussion ‘term’ will be used in the less strict sense unless otherwise noted.
Signification as a psychological and causal property of terms
There are two basic properties for the medieval semantics of terms: signification and supposition. Signification is a psychologico-causal property of terms – a fact responsible for many disagreements and tensions in medieval semantics. The main source for the notion of signification was Boethius' translation of De interpretatione 3, 16b 19: ‘[Verbs] spoken in isolation are names and signify something. For he who speaks [them] establishes an understanding and he who hears [them] rests’. Hence ‘to signify’ something was ‘to establish an understanding’ of it. The psychological overtones of ‘to signify’ are similar to those of the modern ‘to mean’. Nevertheless, signification is not meaning. A term signifies that of which it makes a person think, so that, unlike meaning, signification is a species of the causal relation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Later Medieval PhilosophyFrom the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100–1600, pp. 188 - 196Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982
References
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