Which of the following is correct about the sentence, "Some men are not…

CONCEPT

In categorical logic, distribution tells whether a term is used for every member of the class named by that term.

A proposition of the form 'Some S are not P' is a particular negative, or O-type, proposition: the subject is particular, and the predicate is denied of the selected subject members.

APPLICATION

Here, 'Some men are not married' has subject term 'men' and predicate term 'married'. The word 'some' talks only about part of the class of men, so the subject term is not distributed.

The phrase 'are not married' excludes those men from the class of married persons. To make that exclusion, the predicate class is taken as a whole, so the predicate term is distributed.

CONTRAST

• 'The subject is distributed' overreads the quantifier 'some'; it does not cover all men.

• 'Both subject and predicate are distributed' incorrectly gives universal force to the subject term.

• 'Neither subject nor predicate is distributed' misses the effect of the negative form on the predicate term.

RESULT

Therefore, the statement that fits the sentence is: The predicate is distributed.