Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Conveying a whole term, that is, either the subject or the predicate of a proposition, in a single word. Sometimes incorrectly written categoreumatic or cathegreumatic.
  • noun In logic, a word which is capable of being employed by itself as a term.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Logic.) Capable of being employed by itself as a term; -- said of a word.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective logic Of a word, capable of being employed by itself as a term, such as "man", unlike "many".

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of a term or phrase capable of standing as the subject or (especially) the predicate of a proposition

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κατηγόρημα (katēgorēma, "a predicate").

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Examples

  • The syncategorematic words were naturally seen as indicating the structure or form of the proposition, while the categorematic words supplied its “matter.”

    Logical Constants MacFarlane, John 2009

  • It is valid for any uniform substitution of its categorematic terms.

    The Statue of a Writer 2009

  • However, once we have thrown out the old subject/predicate model, we can no longer identify the categorematic terms with the subject and predicate terms, as the medievals did.

    Logical Constants MacFarlane, John 2009

  • In sum, it is not clear how the distinction between categorematic and syncategorematic terms, so natural in the framework of a term logic, can be extended to a post-Fregean function/argument conception of propositional structure.

    Logical Constants MacFarlane, John 2009

  • His idea is that the syncategoreumata must have some sort of signification, but not the same as the categorematic words.

    Peter of Spain Spruyt, Joke 2007

  • The latter are defined as words that do not have a definitive meaning on their own, but acquire one only in combination with other, categorematic words.

    Peter of Spain Spruyt, Joke 2007

  • (They are of course categorematic in the grammatical sense, in which prepositions and adverbs are equally clearly syncategorematic.)

    Logical Truth Gómez-Torrente, Mario 2006

  • Part I goes on to lay out a fairly detailed theory of terms, including the distinctions between (a) categorematic and syncategorematic terms, (b) abstract and concrete terms, and (c) absolute and connotative terms.

    William of Ockham Spade, Paul Vincent 2006

  • Buridan and other late medieval logicians proposed that categorematic expressions constitute the

    Logical Truth Gómez-Torrente, Mario 2006

  • In making this claim, Brentano relies on the distinction between categorematic and syncategorematic expressions, i.e., between terms that purport to denote entities, and expressions like “is”, “and”,

    Brentano's Theory of Judgement Brandl, Johannes 2005

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