THE CONNOTATION OF TERMS
Sec. 1. Terms are next to be classified according to their
Connotation--that is, according to what they imply as characteristic of
the things denoted. We have seen that general names are used to denote
many things in the same sense, because the things denoted resemble one
another in certain ways: it is this resemblance in certain points that
leads us to class the things together and call them by the same name;
and therefore the points of resemblance constitute the sense or meaning
of the name, or its Connotation, and limit its applicability to such
things as have these characteristic qualities. 'Sheep' for example, is
used in the same sense, to denote any of a multitude of animals that
resemble one another: their size, shape, woolly coats, cloven hoofs,
innocent ways and edibility are well known. When we apply to anything
the term 'sheep,' we imply that it has these qualities: 'sheep,'
denoting the animal, connotes its possessing these characteristics; and,
of course, it cannot, without a figure of speech or a blunder, be used
to denote anything that does not possess all these qualities. It is by a
figure of speech that the term 'sheep' is applied to some men; and to
apply it to goats would be a blunder.
Most people are very imperfectly aware of the connotation of the words
they use, and are guided in using them merely by the custom of the
language. A man who employs a word quite correctly may be sadly posed by
a request to explain or define it. Moreover, so far as we are aware of
the connotation of terms, the number and the kind of attributes we
think of, in any given case, vary with the depth of our interest, and
with the nature of our interest in the things denoted. 'Sheep' has one
meaning to a touring townsman, a much fuller one to a farmer, and yet a
different one to a zoologist. But this does not prevent them agreeing in
the use of the word, as long as the qualities they severally include in
its meaning are not incompatible.
All general names, and therefore not only class-names, like 'sheep,' but
all attributives, have some connotation. 'Woolly' denotes anything that
bears wool, and connotes the fact of bearing wool; 'innocent' denotes
anything that habitually and by its disposition does no harm (or has not
been guilty of a particular offence), and connotes a harmless character
(or freedom from particular guilt); 'edible' denotes whatever can be
eaten with good results, and connotes its suitability for mastication,
deglutition, digestion, and assimilation.
Sec. 2. But whether all terms must connote as well as denote something, has
been much debated. Proper names, according to what seems the better
opinion, are, in their ordinary use, not connotative. To say that they
have no meaning may seem violent: if any one is called John Doe, this
name, no doubt, means a great deal to his friends and neighbours,
reminding them of his stature and physiognomy, his air and gait, his wit
and wisdom, some queer stories, and an indefinite number of other
things. But all this significance is local or accidental; it only exists
for those who know the individual or have heard him described: whereas a
general name gives information about any thing or person it denotes to
everybody who understands the language, without any particular knowledge
of the individual.
We must distinguish, in fact, between the peculiar associations of the
proper name and the commonly recognised meaning of the general name.
This is why proper names are not in the dictionary. Such a name as
London, to be sure, or Napoleon Buonaparte, has a significance not
merely local; still, it is accidental. These names are borne by other
places and persons than those that have rendered them famous. There are
Londons in various latitudes, and, no doubt, many Napoleon Buonapartes
in Louisiana; and each name has in its several denotations an altogether
different suggestiveness. For its suggestiveness is in each application
determined by the peculiarities of the place or person denoted; it is
not given to the different places (or to the different persons) because
they have certain characteristics in common.
However, the scientific grounds of the doctrine that proper names are
non-connotative, are these: The peculiarities that distinguish an
individual person or thing are admitted to be infinite, and anything
less than a complete enumeration of these peculiarities may fail to
distinguish and identify the individual. For, short of a complete
enumeration of them, the description may be satisfied by two or more
individuals; and in that case the term denoting them, if limited by such
a description, is not a proper but a general name, since it is
applicable to two or more in the same sense. The existence of other
individuals to whom it applies may be highly improbable; but, if it be
logically possible, that is enough. On the other hand, the enumeration
of infinite peculiarities is certainly impossible. Therefore proper
names have no assignable connotation. The only escape from this
reasoning lies in falling back upon time and place, the principles of
individuation, as constituting the connotation of proper names. Two
things cannot be at the same time in the same place: hence 'the man who
was at a certain spot on the bridge of Lodi at a certain instant in a
certain year' suffices to identify Napoleon Buonaparte for that instant.
Supposing no one else to have borne the name, then, is this its
connotation? No one has ever thought so. And, at any rate, time and
place are only extrinsic determinations (suitable indeed to events like
the battle of Lodi, or to places themselves like London); whereas the
connotation of a general term, such as 'sheep,' consists of intrinsic
qualities. Hence, then, the scholastic doctrine 'that individuals have
no essence' (see chap. xxii. Sec. 9), and Hamilton's dictum 'that every
concept is inadequate to to the individual,' are justified.
General names, when used as proper names, lose their connotation, as
Euxine or Newfoundland.
Singular terms, other than Proper, have connotation; either in
themselves, like the singular pronouns 'he,' 'she,' 'it,' which are
general in their applicability, though singular in application; or,
derivatively, from the general names that combine to form them, as in
'the first Emperor of the French' or the 'Capital of the British
Empire.'
Sec. 3. Whether Abstract Terms have any connotation is another disputed
question. We have seen that they denote a quality or qualities of
something, and that is precisely what general terms connote: 'honesty'
denotes a quality of some men; 'honest' connotes the same quality,
whilst denoting the men who have it.
The denotation of abstract terms thus seems to exhaust their force or
meaning. It has been proposed, however, to regard them as connoting the
qualities they directly stand for, and not denoting anything; but surely
this is too violent. To denote something is the same as to be the name
of something (whether real or unreal), which every term must be. It is a
better proposal to regard their denotation and connotation as
coinciding; though open to the objection that 'connote' means 'to mark
along with' something else, and this plan leaves nothing else. Mill
thought that abstract terms are connotative when, besides denoting a
quality, they suggest a quality of that quality (as 'fault' implies
'hurtfulness'); but against this it may be urged that one quality cannot
bear another, since every qualification of a quality constitutes a
distinct quality in the total ('milk-whiteness' is distinct from
'whiteness,' _cf._ chap. iii. Sec. 4). After all, if it is the most
consistent plan, why not say that abstract, like proper, terms have no
connotation?
But if abstract terms must be made to connote something, should it not
be those things, indefinitely suggested, to which the qualities belong?
Thus 'whiteness' may be considered to connote either snow or vapour, or
any white thing, apart from one or other of which the quality has no
existence; whose existence therefore it implies. By this course the
denotation and connotation of abstract and of general names would be
exactly reversed. Whilst the denotation of a general name is limited by
the qualities connoted, the connotation of an abstract name includes all
the things in which its denotation is realised. But the whole difficulty
may be avoided by making it a rule to translate, for logical purposes,
all abstract into the corresponding general terms.
Sec. 4. If we ask how the connotation of a term is to be known, the answer
depends upon how it is used. If used scientifically, its connotation is
determined by, and is the same as, its definition; and the definition is
determined by examining the things to be denoted, as we shall see in
chap. xxii. If the same word is used as a term in different sciences, as
'property' in Law and in Logic, it will be differently defined by them,
and will have, in each use, a correspondingly different connotation. But
terms used in popular discourse should, as far as possible, have their
connotations determined by classical usage, i.e., by the sense in
which they are used by writers and speakers who are acknowledged masters
of the language, such as Dryden and Burke. In this case the classical
connotation determines the definition; so that to define terms thus used
is nothing else than to analyse their accepted meanings.
It must not, however, be supposed that in popular use the connotation
of any word is invariable. Logicians have attempted to classify
terms into Univocal (having only one meaning) and AEquivocal (or
ambiguous); and no doubt some words (like 'civil,' 'natural,' 'proud,'
'liberal,' 'humorous') are more manifestly liable to ambiguous use than
some others. But in truth all general terms are popularly and
classically used in somewhat different senses.
Figurative or tropical language chiefly consists in the transfer of
words to new senses, as by metaphor or metonymy. In the course of years,
too, words change their meanings; and before the time of Dryden our
whole vocabulary was much more fluid and adaptable than it has since
become. Such authors as Bacon, Milton, and Sir Thomas Browne often used
words derived from the Latin in some sense they originally had in Latin,
though in English they had acquired another meaning. Spenser and
Shakespeare, besides this practice, sometimes use words in a way that
can only be justified by their choosing to have it so; whilst their
contemporaries, Beaumont and Fletcher, write the perfect modern
language, as Dryden observed. Lapse of time, however, is not the chief
cause of variation in the sense of words. The matters which terms are
used to denote are often so complicated or so refined in the assemblage,
interfusion, or gradation of their qualities, that terms do not exist in
sufficient abundance and discriminativeness to denote the things and, at
the same time, to convey by connotation a determinate sense of their
agreements and differences. In discussing politics, religion, ethics,
aesthetics, this imperfection of language is continually felt; and the
only escape from it, short of coining new words, is to use such words as
we have, now in one sense, now in another somewhat different, and to
trust to the context, or to the resources of the literary art, in order
to convey the true meaning. Against this evil the having been born since
Dryden is no protection. It behoves us, then, to remember that terms are
not classifiable into Univocal and AEquivocal, but that all terms are
susceptible of being used aequivocally, and that honesty and lucidity
require us to try, as well as we can, to use each term univocally in the
same context.
The context of any proposition always proceeds upon some assumption or
understanding as to the scope of the discussion, which controls the
interpretation of every statement and of every word. This was called by
De Morgan the "universe of discourse": an older name for it, revived by
Dr. Venn, and surely a better one, is _suppositio_. If we are talking of
children, and 'play' is mentioned, the _suppositio_ limits the
suggestiveness of the word in one way; whilst if Monaco is the subject
of conversation, the same word 'play,' under the influence of a
different _suppositio_, excites altogether different ideas. Hence to
ignore the _suppositio_ is a great source of fallacies of equivocation.
'Man' is generally defined as a kind of animal; but 'animal' is often
used as opposed to and excluding man. 'Liberal' has one meaning under
the _suppositio_ of politics, another with regard to culture, and still
another as to the disposal of one's private means. Clearly, therefore,
the connotation of general terms is relative to the _suppositio_, or
"universe of discourse."
Sec. 5. Relative and Absolute Terms.--Some words go in couples or groups:
like 'up-down,' 'former-latter,' 'father-mother-children,'
'hunter-prey,' 'cause-effect,' etc. These are called Relative Terms,
and their nature, as explained by Mill, is that the connotations of the
members of such a pair or group are derived from the same set of facts
(the _fundamentum relationis_). There cannot be an 'up' without a
'down,' a 'father' without a 'mother' and 'child'; there cannot be a
'hunter' without something hunted, nor 'prey' without a pursuer. What
makes a man a 'hunter' is his activities in pursuit; and what turns a
chamois into 'prey' is its interest in these activities. The meaning of
both terms, therefore, is derived from the same set of facts; neither
term can be explained without explaining the other, because the relation
between them is connoted by both; and neither can with propriety be used
without reference to the other, or to some equivalent, as 'game' for
'prey.'
In contrast with such Relative Terms, others have been called Absolute
or Non-relative. Whilst 'hunter' and 'prey' are relative, 'man' and
'chamois' have been considered absolute, as we may use them without
thinking of any special connection between their meanings. However, if
we believe in the unity of Nature and in the relativity of knowledge
(that is, that all knowledge depends upon comparison, or a perception of
the resemblances and differences of things), it follows that nothing can
be completely understood except through its agreements or contrasts with
everything else, and that all terms derive their connotation from the
same set of facts, namely, from general experience. Thus both man and
chamois are animals; this fact is an important part of the meaning of
both terms, and to that extent they are relative terms. 'Five yards' and
'five minutes' are very different notions, yet they are profoundly
related; for their very difference helps to make both notions distinct;
and their intimate connection is shown in this, that five yards are
traversed in a certain time, and that five minutes are measured by the
motion of an index over some fraction of a yard upon the dial.
The distinction, then, between relative and non-relative terms must
rest, not upon a fundamental difference between them (since, in fact,
all words are relative), but upon the way in which words are used. We
have seen that some words, such as 'up-down,' 'cause-effect,' can only
be used relatively; and these may, for distinction, be called
Correlatives. But other words, whose meanings are only partially
interdependent, may often be used without attending to their relativity,
and may then be considered as Absolute. We cannot say 'the hunter
returned empty handed,' without implying that 'the prey escaped'; but we
may say 'the man went supperless to bed,' without implying that 'the
chamois rejoiced upon the mountain.' Such words as 'man' and 'chamois'
may, then, in their use, be, as to one another, non-relative.
To illustrate further the relativity of terms, we may mention some of
the chief classes of them.
Numerical order: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.; 1st implies 2nd, and 2nd 1st;
and 3rd implies 1st and 2nd, but these do not imply 3rd; and so on.
Order in Time or Place: before-after; early-punctual-late;
right-middle-left; North-South, etc.
As to Extent, Volume, and Degree: greater-equal-less;
large-medium-small; whole and part.
Genus and Species are a peculiar case of whole and part (_cf._ chaps.
xxi.-ii.-iii.). Sometimes a term connotes all the attributes that
another does, and more besides, which, as distinguishing it, are called
differential. Thus 'man' connotes all that 'animal' does, and also (as
_differentiae_) the erect gait, articulate speech, and other attributes.
In such a case as this, where there are well-marked classes, the term
whose connotation is included in the others' is called a Genus of that
Species. We have a Genus, triangle; and a Species, isosceles, marked off
from all other triangles by the differential quality of having two equal
sides: again--Genus, book; Species, quarto; Difference, having each
sheet folded into four leaves.
There are other cases where these expressions 'genus' and 'species'
cannot be so applied without a departure from usage, as, e.g., if we
call snow a species of the genus 'white,' for 'white' is not a
recognised class. The connotation of white (i.e., whiteness) is,
however, part of the connotation of snow, just as the qualities of
'animal' are amongst those of 'man'; and for logical purposes it is
desirable to use 'genus and species' to express that relativity of
terms which consists in the connotation of one being part of the
connotation of the other.
Two or more terms whose connotations severally include that of another
term, whilst at the same time exceeding it, are (in relation to that
other term) called Co-ordinate. Thus in relation to 'white,' snow and
silver are co-ordinate; in relation to colour, yellow and red and blue
are co-ordinate. And when all the terms thus related stand for
recognised natural classes, the co-ordinate terms are called co-ordinate
species; thus man and chamois are (in Logic) co-ordinate species of the
genus animal.
Sec. 6. From such examples of terms whose connotations are related as whole
and part, it is easy to see the general truth of the doctrine that as
connotation decreases, denotation increases: for 'animal,' with less
connotation than man or chamois, denotes many more objects; 'white,'
with less connotation than snow or silver, denotes many more things, It
is not, however, certain that this doctrine is always true in the
concrete: since there may be a term connoting two or more qualities, all
of which qualities are peculiar to all the things it denotes; and, if
so, by subtracting one of the qualities from its connotation, we should
not increase its denotation. If 'man,' for example, has among mammals
the two peculiar attributes of erect gait and articulate speech, then,
by omitting 'articulate speech' from the connotation of man, we could
not apply the name to any more of the existing mammalia than we can at
present. Still we might have been able to do so; there might have been
an erect inarticulate ape, and perhaps there once was one; and, if so,
to omit 'articulate' from the connotation of man would make the term
'man' denote that animal (supposing that there was no other difference
to exclude it). Hence, potentially, an increase of the connotation of
any term implies a decrease of its denotation. And, on the other hand,
we can only increase the denotation of a term, or apply it to more
objects, by decreasing its connotation; for, if the new things denoted
by the term had already possessed its whole connotation, they must
already have been denoted by it. However, we may increase the _known_
denotation without decreasing the connotation, if we can discover the
full connotation in things not formerly supposed to have it, as when
dolphins were discovered to be mammals; or if we can impose the
requisite qualities upon new individuals, as when by annexing some
millions of Africans we extend the denotation of 'British subject'
without altering its connotation.
Many of the things noticed in this chapter, especially in this section
and the preceding, will be discussed at greater length in the chapters
on Classification and Definition.
Sec. 7. Contradictory Relative Terms.--Every term has, or may have, another
corresponding with it in such a way that, whatever differential
qualities (Sec. 5) it connotes, this other connotes merely their absence;
so that one or the other is always formally predicable of any Subject,
but both these terms are never predicable of the same Subject in the
same relation: such pairs of terms are called Contradictories. Whatever
Subject we take, it is either visible or invisible, but not both; either
human or non-human, but not both.
This at least is true formally, though in practice we should think
ourselves trifled with if any one told us that 'A mountain is either
human or non-human, but not both.' It is symbolic terms, such as X and
x, that are properly said to be contradictories in relation to any
subject whatever, S or M. For, as we have seen, the ordinary use of
terms is limited by some _suppositio_, and this is true of
Contradictories. 'Human' and 'non-human' may refer to zoological
classification, or to the scope of physical, mental, or moral powers--as
if we ask whether to flourish a dumbbell of a ton weight, or to know the
future by intuition, or impeccability, be human or non-human. Similarly,
'visible' and 'invisible' refer either to the power of emitting or
reflecting light, so that the words have no hold upon a sound or a
scent, or else to power of vision and such qualifications as 'with the
naked eye' or 'with a microscope.'
Again, the above definition of Contradictories tells us that they cannot
be predicated of the same Subject "in the same relation"; that is, at
the same time or place, or under the same conditions. The lamp is
visible to me now, but will be invisible if I turn it out; one side of
it is now visible, but the other is not: therefore without this
restriction, "in the same relation," few or no terms would be
contradictory.
If a man is called wise, it may mean 'on the whole' or 'in a certain
action'; and clearly a man may for once be wise (or act wisely) who, on
the whole, is not-wise. So that here again, by this ambiguity, terms
that seem contradictory are predicable of the same subject, but not "in
the same relation." In order to avoid the ambiguity, however, we have
only to construct the term so as to express the relation, as 'wise on
the whole'; and this immediately generates the contradictory 'not-wise
on the whole.' Similarly, at one age a man may have black hair, at
another not-black hair; but the difficulty is practically removable by
stating the age referred to.
Still, this case easily leads us to a real difficulty in the use of
contradictory terms, a difficulty arising from the continuous change or
'flux' of natural phenomena. If things are continually changing, it may
be urged that contradictory terms are always applicable to the same
subject, at least as fast as we can utter them: for if we have just said
that a man's hair is black, since (like everything else) his hair is
changing, it must now be not-black, though (to be sure) it may still
seem black. The difficulty, such as it is, lies in this, that the human
mind and its instrument language are not equal to the subtlety of
Nature. All things flow, but the terms of human discourse assume a
certain fixity of things; everything at every moment changes, but for
the most part we can neither perceive this change nor express it in
ordinary language.
This paradox, however, may, I suppose, be easily over-stated. The change
that continually agitates Nature consists in the movements of masses or
molecules, and such movements of things are compatible with a
considerable persistence of their qualities. Not only are the molecular
changes always going on in a piece of gold compatible with its remaining
yellow, but its persistent yellowness depends on the continuance of some
of those changes. Similarly, a man's hair may remain black for some
years; though, no doubt, at a certain age its colour may begin to be
problematical, and the applicability to it of 'black' or 'not-black' may
become a matter of genuine anxiety. Whilst being on our guard, then,
against fallacies of contradiction arising from the imperfect
correspondence of fact with thought and language, we shall often have to
put up with it. Candour and humility having been satisfied by the above
acknowledgment of the subtlety of Nature, we may henceforward proceed
upon the postulate--that it is possible to use contradictory terms such
as cannot both be predicated of the same subject in the same relation,
though one of them may be; that, for example, it may be truly said of a
man for some years that his hair is black; and, if so, that during those
years to call it not-black is false or extremely misleading.
The most opposed terms of the literary vocabulary, however, such as
'wise-foolish,' 'old-young,' 'sweet-bitter,' are rarely true
contradictories: wise and foolish, indeed, cannot be predicated of the
same man in the same relation; but there are many middling men, of whom
neither can be predicated on the whole. For the comparison of
quantities, again, we have three correlative terms,
'greater--equal--less,' and none of these is the contradictory of either
of the others. In fact, the contradictory of any term is one that
denotes the sum of its co-ordinates (Sec. 6); and to obtain a
contradictory, the surest way is to coin one by prefixing to the given
term the particle 'not' or (sometimes) 'non': as 'wise, not-wise,'
'human, non-human,' 'greater, not-greater.'
The separate word 'not' is surer to constitute a contradictory than the
usual prefixes of negation, 'un-' or 'in-,' or even 'non'; since
compounds of these are generally warped by common use from a purely
negative meaning. Thus, 'Nonconformist' does not denote everybody who
fails to conform. 'Unwise' is not equivalent to 'not-wise,' but means
'rather foolish'; a very foolish action is not-wise, but can only be
called unwise by meiosis or irony. Still, negatives formed by 'in' or
'un' or 'non' are sometimes really contradictory of their positives; as
'visible, invisible,' 'equal, unequal.'
Sec. 8. The distinction between Positive and Negative terms is not of much
value in Logic, what importance would else attach to it being absorbed
by the more definite distinction of contradictories. For contradictories
are positive and negative in essence and, when least ambiguously stated,
also in form. And, on the other hand, as we have seen, when positive and
negative terms are not contradictory, they are misleading. As with
'wise-unwise,' so with many others, such as 'happy-unhappy'; which are
not contradictories; since a man may be neither happy nor unhappy, but
indifferent, or (again) so miserable that he can only be called unhappy
by a figure of speech. In fact, in the common vocabulary a formal
negative often has a limited positive sense; and this is the case with
unhappy, signifying the state of feeling in the milder shades of
Purgatory.
When a Negative term is fully contradictory of its Positive it is said
to be Infinite; because it denotes an unascertained multitude of things,
a multitude only limited by the positive term and the _suppositio_; thus
'not-wise' denotes all except the wise, within the _suppositio_ of
'intelligent beings.' Formally (disregarding any _suppositio_), such a
negative term stands for all possible terms except its positive: x
denotes everything but X; and 'not-wise' may be taken to include stones,
triangles and hippogriffs. And even in this sense, a negative term has
some positive meaning, though a very indefinite one, not a specific
positive force like 'unwise' or 'unhappy': it denotes any and everything
that has not the attributes connoted by the corresponding positive term.
Privative Terms connote the absence of a quality that normally belongs
to the kind of thing denoted, as 'blind' or 'deaf.' We may predicate
'blind' or 'deaf' of a man, dog or cow that happens not to be able to
see or hear, because the powers of seeing and hearing generally belong
to those species; but of a stone or idol these terms can only be used
figuratively. Indeed, since the contradictory of a privative carries
with it the privative limitation, a stone is strictly 'not-blind': that
is, it is 'not-something-that-normally-having-sight-wants-it.'
Contrary Terms are those that (within a certain genus or _suppositio_)
severally connote differential qualities that are, in fact, mutually
incompatible in the same relation to the same thing, and therefore
cannot be predicated of the same subject in the same relation; and, so
far, they resemble Contradictory Terms: but they differ from
contradictory terms in this, that the differential quality connoted by
each of them is definitely positive; no Contrary Term is infinite, but
is limited to part of the _suppositio_ excluded by the others; so that,
possibly, neither of two Contraries is truly predicable of a given
subject. Thus 'blue' and 'red' are Contraries, for they cannot both be
predicated of the same thing in the same relation; but are not
Contradictories, since, in a given case, neither may be predicable: if a
flower is blue in a certain part, it cannot in the same part be red; but
it may be neither blue nor red, but yellow; though it is certainly
either blue or not-blue. All co-ordinate terms are formal Contraries;
but if, in fact, a series of co-ordinates comprises only two (as
male-female), they are empirical Contradictories; since each includes
all that area of the _suppositio_ which the other excludes.
The extremes of a series of co-ordinate terms are Opposites; as, in a
list of colours, white and black, the most strongly contrasted, are said
to be opposites, or as among moods of feeling, rapture and misery are
opposites. But this distinction is of slight logical importance.
Imperfect Positive and Negative couples, like 'happy and unhappy,' which
(as we have seen) are not contradictories, are often called Opposites.
The members of any series of Contraries are all included by any one of
them and its contradictory, as all colours come under 'red' and
'not-red,' all moods of feeling under 'happy' and 'not-happy.'