The names of simple impressions and ideas, or of groups of co-existent
or successive complex impressions and ideas, considered _per se_, are
substantives; as redness, dog, silver, mouth; while the names of
impressions or ideas considered as parts or attributes of a complex
whole, are adjectives. Thus redness, considered as part of the complex
idea of a rose, becomes the adjective red; flesh-eater, as part of the
idea of a dog, is represented by carnivorous; whiteness, as part of the
idea of silver, is white; and so on.
The linguistic machinery for the expression of belief is called
_predication_; and, as all beliefs express ideas of relation, we may say
that the sign of predication is the verbal symbol of a feeling of
relation. The words which serve to indicate predication are verbs. If I
say "silver" and then "white," I merely utter two names; but if I
interpose between them the verb "is," I express a belief in the
co-existence of the feeling of whiteness with the other feelings which
constitute the totality of the complex idea of silver; in other words, I
predicate "whiteness" of silver.
In such a case as this, the verb expresses predication and nothing else,
and is called a copula. But, in the great majority of verbs, the word is
the sign of a complex idea, and the predication is expressed only by its
form. Thus in "silver shines," the verb "to shine" is the sign for the
feeling of brightness, and the mark of predication lies in the form
"shine-_s_.
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