predicate
noun /ˈprɛdɪkət 
/
/1 Grammar The part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject (e.g. went home in John went home).This is the subject, and the predicate has the form is + noun phrase....
- You don't need to worry about sentences with predicates and subjects.
- Please remember to answer in complete subject / predicate sentences to demonstrate your communicative skills.
2 Logic Something which is affirmed or denied concerning an argument of a proposition.The theory that existence is not a predicate implies, however, that all existential propositions are synthetic....
- Both Kant and Russell for example are interested in the logical issue of whether existence is a predicate.
- In ‘On Interpretation’ Aristotle argues that a single assertion must always either affirm or deny a single predicate of a single subject.
verb /ˈprɛdɪkeɪt / [with object]
/ [with object]1 Grammar & Logic State, affirm, or assert (something) about the subject of a sentence or an argument of a proposition: a word which predicates something about its subject aggression is predicated of those who act aggressively...
- Anything we please can be made to serve as a logical predicate; the subject can even be predicated of itself; for logic abstracts from all content.
- What can be predicated of a kind differs absolutely from what can be predicated of an individual.
- So Scotus claims that pure perfection can be predicated of God.
1.1Declare or affirm (something) as true or existing; postulate or assert: the Pleistocene colonization of Tasmania has long been predicated...
- It is true that the Court in the Chemial case predicates its acceptance of the Italian policy on the basis that it does not result in any discrimination, whether direct or indirect.
- It's true that many modern philosophies predicate humanness on the ability to reason.
- Yet the rejection of elemental decencies and self-respect on which their society is predicated amounts to a collapse of civilisation.
2 (predicate something on/upon) Found or base something on: the theory of structure on which later chemistry was predicated...
- One just can't help feeling, however, that the entire base he has predicated his argument on is flawed.
- Second, social movements are predicated on, and derive their legitimacy from, mass mobilization and popular support.
- Consider, for example, the scope of the authority Mary believes the love-charm affords her and what, in the end, that authority is predicated upon.
Synonyms
base, be dependent, found, establish, rest, build, ground, premise
Derivatives
predication
/ noun ...- Phillips's syntax does the same thing, deferring predication so that we will be drawn to the end of the poem.
- It is true that purely mathematical discourse has no use for tensed predications, but reference to numbers can occur in other kinds of discourse than the purely mathematical.
- According to this refined view, a predication is made not by combining two ideas or presentations, but by combining two judgements.
Origin
Late Middle English (as a noun): from Latin praedicatum 'something declared', neuter of praedicatus 'declared, proclaimed', past participle of the verb praedicare, from prae 'beforehand' + dicare 'make known'.