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One of our basic mental operations is simple apprehension. Our intellect apprehends or
abstracts the nature or essential qualities (essence) of the things we perceive. The product of this
mental function is called idea. Hence, we have a concept of a dog, for instance, which refers to our
intellectual image or grasp of an animal called dog.
A word is the simplest unit of written or spoken language. It is the fundamental medium of
communication. Without words, sentences and statements cannot be constructed. When employed to
express an idea or group of ideas (concept), a word or group of words (phrases) is called term.
A term is the oral or written representation of an idea or group of ideas (concept). It is also the
basic component of a statement.
The proposition The former president of the Philippines is a woman, for
instance, contains two terms: the former president of the Philippines and
woman. Woman is a word used to express an idea. This is an example
of a simple term, that is, a single word term. The phrase the former
vice-president of the Philippines is a group of words used to express an
idea or concept. This exemplifies a complex term a term which
is a group of words representing one concept.
While terms are automatically words, words are not
necessarily terms. In the statement above, is is a word but
is not a term. Many other words have no referents, and hence
are words but not terms, such as or, only, from, through, out, etc.
Word therefore is not synonymous with term for not all
words are terms. And as distinct from concept, word is made
up of letters whereas concept is made up of ideas.
COMPREHENSION AND EXTENSION OF TERMS
Our mind has the ability and function to abstract the common
qualities or features present in some things perceived by our
senses.
In our observation, for example, we see some animals
exhibiting distinct attributes common to all alike. We cluster
the more noticeable of these characteristics into a concept
for instance, that of a dog. Every time we encounter an animal
displaying such qualities, we term it a dog.
The set of attributes or traits that members of a term possess is called the
comprehension of a term. Dog, for example, is an animal, a mammal, a
living organism, a sentient being. The comprehension includes not only the
essential qualities but also those deducible from them. Being an animal, a dog, for
instance, can multiply. Being a living organism, someday it will die.
2. A term is negative if it indicates the non-appearance of some trait, e.g. unjust, sickly, inactive, death,
immorality.
There are two kinds of negative term: a) negative in form, negative in meaning, e.g. unjust,
inactive, immoral, impotent; and b) positive in form, negative in meaning, e.g. mistake, death, evil,
oppression, chaos.
C. ACCORDING TO COMPREHENSION:
UNIVOCAL, EQUIVOCAL, AND ANALOGOUS
1. A term is univocal if it exhibits exactly identical sense and
meaning in different incidents. For example, we say Canines are
dogs and Dalmatians are dogs. The term dogs is univocal, unless we
give a different meaning in any of the term dogs in the statements.