An introductory text-book of logic - Mellone, Sydney - Rare Books at ...

AND THE LAWS OF THOUGHT. I?
as long as its meaning does not change. All proper
names belong to this class. If the singular name is
not a proper name, it is always indicated by a demon
strative, or by an equivalent expression giving the object
a definite position in time or place.
The following are singular names which are not proper
the year in
names :
"
the writer of the letters
"
of Junius,"
which Queen Victoria died,"
"the present Government,"
"the earth," "the largest planet of the solar system" ; and
all names introduced by singular demonstrative adjectives,
"
"
this," that," &c. A proper name may be described as a
"
demonstrative." It is a mark used for the
particularised
sake of distinguishing one particular object, and not (at first)
for what it means. It may have almost no meaning when
first applied (see below, 8).
There is great vagueness in the explanation of sing
ular names in logical text-books, through neglect to notice
that the characteristic of such names is to specify the
object by limiting it or "individualising" it in space and
time.
(b) A common name is applicable without change of
meaning to a number of objects, which resemble one
another in some characteristic features or aspects, called
in Logic attributes. When a name is thus applicable
to every one of a class in turn, it is said to be distrib-
utively used. The name is applied to the individuals
because they have in common certain attributes. These
attributes are what the name means ; together they form
what is called the connotation of the name,
or the
intension or content of the idea; and the objects to
which it is applied constitute the denotation of the
name,
or the extension of the idea. Thus the de
notation of the name "
group or class of beings
man
"
consists of the whole
which this name denotes that
B