亚里士多德解释编—-解释篇（3-5）

3

A verb is that which, in addition to its proper meaning, carries with it the

notion of time.  No part of it has any independent meaning, and it is a sign of

something said of something else.

I will explain what I mean by saying that it carries with it the notion of time.

’Health’  is a  noun, but ’is healthy’ is a verb;  for  besides its  proper  meaning it

indicates the present existence of the state in question.

Moreover, a verb is always a sign of something said of something else, i.e.

of something either predicable of or present in some other thing.

Such expressions as ’is not-healthy’, ’is not, ill’, I  do not describe as verbs;

for though they carry the additional note of time, and always form a predicate,

there  is  no  specified  name  for  this  variety;  but  let  them  be  called  indefinite

verbs,  since  they  apply  equally  well  to  that  which  exists  and  to  that  which

does  not.

Similarly ’he was healthy’, ’he will be healthy’, are not verbs, but tenses of a

verb; the difference lies in the fact  that the verb indicates present time, while

the tenses of the verb indicate those times which lie outside the present.

Verbs in and by themselves  are substantival and have significance, for he

who uses such expressions arrests the hearer’s mind, and fixes his attention;

but  they  do  not,  as  they  stand,  express  any  judgement,  either  positive  or

negative. For neither are ’to be’ and ’not to be’ the participle ’being’ significant

of  any fact,  unless  something is  added; for  they do  not themselves  indicate

anything, but imply a copulation, of which we cannot form a conception apart

from the things coupled.

 

4

A s entenc e is a significant portion of speech, some parts of which have an

independent  meaning,  that  is  to  say,  as  an  utterance,  though  not  as  the

expression of any positive judgement. Let me explain. The word ’human’ has

meaning, but does not constitute  a proposition, either  positive or negative.  It

is only when other words are added that the whole will form an affirmation or

denial.  But if we separate  one  syllable of the word ’human’ from the other, it

has no meaning; similarly in the word ’mouse’, the part ’ouse’ has no meaning

in  itself,  but  is  merely  a  sound.  In  composite  words,  indeed,  the  parts

contribute  to  the  meaning  of  the  whole;  yet,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  they

have not an independent meaning.

Every  sentence  has  meaning, not  as  being  the  natural means  by  which  a

physical  faculty  is  realized,  but,  as  we  have said, by  convention.  Yet  every

sentence  is  not  a  proposition;  only  such  are  propos itions  as  have  in  them

either truth or falsity. Thus a prayer is a sentence, but is neither true nor false.

Let us therefore dismiss all other types of sentenc e but the proposition, for

this last concerns our present inquiry, whereas the inves tigation of the others

belongs rather to the study of rhetoric or of poetry.

 

5

The first class of simple propositions is the simple affirmation, the next, the

simple denial; all others are only one by conjunction.

Every  propos ition must  contain a verb or  the tense of a verb.  The  phrase

which defines the species ’man’, if no verb in present, past, or future time be

added,  is  not  a  proposition.  It  may  be  asked  how  the  expression  ’a  footed

animal  with two feet’  can be  called  single; for it  is not  the circumstance  that

the words  follow  in unbroken  succession  that effects the  unity. This  inquiry,

however, finds its place in an investigation foreign to that before us.

We  call  those  propositions  single  which  indicate  a  single  fact,  or  the

conjunction  of  the  parts  of  which  results  in unity:  those  propositions, on the

other hand, are separate and many in number, which  indicate many facts, or

whose parts have no c onjunction.

Let us, moreover, consent to call a noun or a verb an expression only, and

not a proposition, since it is not possible for a man to speak in this way when

he is  expres sing something, in such  a way as to make a statement, whether

his utterance is an answer to a question or an act of his own initiation.

To  return:  of  propos itions  one  kind  is  simple,  i.e.  that  which  asserts   or

denies  something  of  something,  the  other  composite,  i.e.  that  which  is

compounded of simple propositions. A simple proposition is a statement, with

meaning, as to the presence of something in a s ubject or  its  absence, in the

present, past, or future, acc ording to the divisions of time.