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1、350BCONINTERPRETATIONbyAristotletranslatedbyE.M.Edghill1Firstwemustdefinetheterms'noun'and'verb',thentheterms'denial'and'affirmation',then'proposition'and'sentence.'Spokenwordsarethesymbolsofmentalexperienceandwrittenwordsarethesymbolsofspokenwords.Justasallm
2、enhavenotthesamewriting,soallmenhavenotthesamespeechsounds,butthementalexperiences,whichthesedirectlysymbolize,arethesameforall,asalsoarethosethingsofwhichourexperiencesaretheimages.Thismatterhas,however,beendiscussedinmytreatiseaboutthesoul,foritbelongstoani
3、nvestigationdistinctfromthatwhichliesbeforeus.Asthereareinthemindthoughtswhichdonotinvolvetruthorfalsity,andalsothosewhichmustbeeithertrueorfalse,soitisinspeech.Fortruthandfalsityimplycombinationandseparation.Nounsandverbs,providednothingisadded,arelikethough
4、tswithoutcombinationorseparation;'man'and'white',asisolatedterms,arenotyeteithertrueorfalse.Inproofofthis,considertheword'goat-stag.'Ithassignificance,butthereisnotruthorfalsityaboutit,unless'is'or'isnot'isadded,eitherinthepresentorinsomeothertense.2Byanounwe
5、meanasoundsignificantbyconvention,whichhasnoreferencetotime,andofwhichnopartissignificantapartfromtherest.Inthenoun'Fairsteed,'thepart'steed'hasnosignificanceinandbyitself,asinthephrase'fairsteed.'Yetthereisadifferencebetweensimpleandcompositenouns;forinthefo
6、rmerthepartisinnowaysignificant,inthelatteritcontributestothemeaningofthewhole,althoughithasnotanindependentmeaning.Thusintheword'pirate-boat'theword'boat'hasnomeaningexceptaspartofthewholeword.Thelimitation'byconvention'wasintroducedbecausenothingisbynaturea
7、nounorname-itisonlysowhenitbecomesasymbol;inarticulatesounds,suchasthosewhichbrutesproduce,aresignificant,yetnoneoftheseconstitutesanoun.Theexpression'not-man'isnotanoun.Thereisindeednorecognizedtermbywhichwemaydenotesuchanexpression,foritisnotasentenceoraden
8、ial.Letitthenbecalledanindefinitenoun.Theexpressions'ofPhilo','toPhilo',andsoon,constitutenotnouns,butcasesofanoun.Thedefinitionofthesecasesofanounisinotherrespectsthesameasthatofthenounp
