Concept
Predicate (grammar)
Overview
The term predicate is used in two ways in linguistics and its subfields. The first defines a predicate as everything in a standard declarative sentence except the subject, and the other defines it as only the main content verb or associated predicative expression of a clause. Thus, by the first definition, the predicate of the sentence Frank likes cake is likes cake, while by the second definition, it is only the content verb likes, and Frank and cake are the arguments of this predicate. The conflict between these two definitions can lead to confusion.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Every proposition consists of three parts: the Subject, the Predicate, and the Copula. The predicate is the name denoting that which is affirmed or denied. The subject is the name denoting the person or thing which something is affirmed or denied of.
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
Names Predicate several times; states what Predicate is.
When the name which is the subject of the proposition is a general name, we may intend to affirm or deny the predicate, either of all the things that the subject denotes, or only of some. When the predicate is affirmed or denied of all and each of the things denoted by the subject, the proposition is universal; when of some undefined portion of them only, it is particular. Thus, All men are mortal; Every man is…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
Names Predicate several times; states what Predicate is.
We first of all separate a predicate of a thing from the conception of the thing, and afterwards connect with this predicate its opposite, and hence do not establish any contradiction with the subject, but only with its predicate, which has been conjoined with the subject synthetically—a contradiction, moreover, which obtains only when the first and second predicate are affirmed in the same time. If I say: “A man…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
Names Predicate several times; states what Predicate is.
Philosophers who discussed Predicate (grammar)
Related ideas
- Function (mathematics)
- Object (grammar)
- Linguistics
- Denotation
- Term logic
- Logic
- Property (philosophy)
- Proper noun
- Cambridge University Press
- Traditional grammar
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.