The basis of the following classification — ‘animal’, ‘man’, ‘house’, ‘book’…
2011
The basis of the following classification — ‘animal’, ‘man’, ‘house’, ‘book’ and ‘student’ — is :
Answer: D. Common names — ConceptIn logic a term is a word or group of words that can stand as the subject of a statement, and terms are sorted by the manner in which they designate…
- A.
Definite descriptions
- B.
Proper names
- C.
Descriptive phrases
- D.
Common names
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
In logic a term is a word or group of words that can stand as the subject of a statement, and terms are sorted by the manner in which they designate what they stand for. A proper name is a tag fixed to one particular individual; a common (class) name is a class term that can be predicated of each member of a group sharing one defining attribute; a definite description and a descriptive phrase are multi-word expressions in which added qualifiers, not a bare class term, carry the reference.
Kind of term | What it designates | Example |
|---|---|---|
Proper name | One particular individual, tagged by the name itself | Napoleon, North Dakota |
Common (class) name | Each member of a class sharing one defining attribute | metal, river, teacher |
Definite description | A referent fixed by an attribute stated inside the phrase | the author of Hamlet |
Descriptive phrase | A set picked out by qualifiers added to a general term | officers in the Swiss Navy |
Application
Test each item in the list against the table by asking of how many things the item can truly be said:
‘animal’ can be said with equal truth of a dog, a horse and a fish — it labels a class held together by the attribute of being a living, sentient organism.
‘man’ can be said of every human being, not of any one person in particular.
‘house’ can be said of every dwelling of that kind, from a hut to a bungalow.
‘book’ can be said of every written or printed work of that kind, whatever its title, author or binding.
‘student’ can be said of every person enrolled in a course of study.
Every item is a single class term that can be predicated of each member of an open class sharing one defining attribute. That shared feature is the basis of the classification: all five are common names.
Cross-check against the other kinds of term
A proper name such as ‘Napoleon’ or ‘North Dakota’ tags one individual and cannot be predicated of a second thing; none of the five items behaves that way, since each covers indefinitely many things.
A definite description such as ‘the author of Hamlet’ needs a ‘the’ plus an attribute inside the phrase to fix its referent; the five items are bare class terms with no such added attribute.
A descriptive phrase such as ‘officers in the Swiss Navy’ narrows a general term by qualifiers; the five items carry no qualifiers at all.
Hence the basis on which ‘animal’, ‘man’, ‘house’, ‘book’ and ‘student’ are grouped together is that each of them is a common name.