most reading in the schools is accomplished, aiming too much at perfection of form, too little at a full understanding of the meaning, is a prolific source of lax habits of thought that multiply the chances of ambiguity. One hears long argumentative harangues on religious, moral, political, and social topics that turn entirely upon a perverse misapprehension of meaning. After the debaters are worn out they usually close by admitting that both meant the same, and that the debate was a useless expenditure of energy; the only trouble being that neither would pause long enough to bring the other's terms in comparison with the context. To sum this up: let the teacher take every possible advantage of the opportunities to refer terms to the realities that they symbolize; let him utilize pictures if the realities cannot be present in the flesh; let him question and develop paraphrases if neither thing nor picture is available; let him teach reading for understanding's sake rather than for mechanical perfection; and let him, above all, summon the oral and written context to illumine words and phrases that, when standing alone, prove misleading. REFERENCES Creighton, An Introductory Logic, Ch. V, § 17. Hyslop, Elements of Logic, Ch. IV. Welton, Manual of Logic, Vol. I, Intro., Ch. I, § 3. Welton, The Logical Bases of Education, Ch. III, § 11. Minto, Logic, Inductive and Deductive, Bk. I, Pt. II, Ch. I, pp. 82-93. Aikins, The Principles of Logic, Ch. II. Jevons-Hill, Elements of Logic, Ch. I, § II. REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Why do we need to use the same term for more than one meaning? 2. Name the advantage and disadvantage of this. 3. Where do we find the best cases of univocal terms? 4. What kind of terms is most likely to be ambiguous? 5. In what two ways may the fallacy of equivocation be used? What do you understand by a sophism? 6. Upon what do punning and the minor forms of wit depend? 7. What three conditions conspire to cause the most serious cases of ambiguity. 8. Name the three causes of the most serious ambiguities. 9. What is the literary value of "transfer of epithet"? 10. How does incomplete classification influence ambiguity? 11. What means should the teacher employ to avoid and correct ambiguity? EXERCISES ON CHAPTER III 1. Find five examples of "faded metaphors" in words of Latin derivation. 2. Make a list of ten univocal terms. 3. Make a list of ten equivocal terms, and show how they are ambiguous. 4. Write five sentences illustrating ambiguous terms. 5. Cite five instances of words that are ambiguous only when heard. 6. Cite five instances of words that are ambiguous only when read. 7. Mention five words that are ambiguous to both ear and eye. 8. In the following list of words show, 1st, wherein lies the ambiguity; 2d, what is the cause (consulting the dictionary for the etymology when necessary): 9. Make five sentences in which words selected from the above list are used so as to be ambiguous. 10. Cite ten passages from important English poets, such as Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Browning, where transferred epithet occurs, and be prepared to explain the analogy. CHAPTER IV.-DENOTATION AND CONNO TATION. 19. THE DOUBLE FUNCTION OF GENERAL TERMS.We have seen how a general term names a class of things that are grouped together, because they all have common qualities or attributes. Now two facts are apparent about such a class: first, it is composed of at least two (usually several or many) individuals; second, no matter what the other varying attributes, there must be at least one (usually more) attribute or characteristic that these individuals have in common. The general name that symbolizes the class must, therefore, do double duty: it must make clear to our minds the fact that individuals compose the class; it must also call to our notice the fact that a common attribute or common attributes bind these individuals together into a class. For example, the general term dog points out Fido, Rover, Sport, and the millions of unnamed yellow, black, spotted, and indescribable curs that common consent looks upon as coming within this particular class of animals; the same term also brings more or less prominently before the attention those essential common attributes whose presence in certain animals enables us to recognize them as members of this class. The first of these functions is the pointing-out function; the second is the function of calling up the essential marks of recognition. 20. DENOTATION.-Denotation means the sum-total of the individuals of the class to which the general term applies. Several synonyms for this word are in common use. The most usual of these is the word extension. Breadth and scope are also occasionally used. Denotation is preferable because it has the verb-form, denote, the adjective-form, denotative, the adverb-form, denotatively, and the phrase-form, in denotation. It has also the advantage of being more technical and hence less ambiguous than its rivals. 21. CONNOTATION.-Connotation may be defined as that function of a general term which calls to mind the essential attributes by the possession of which an individual can be referred to its class. The most common synonym for this term is intension. The word depth is also frequently used. Connotation is preferable both because it is more technical, and because there is the verbform, connote, the adjective-form, connotative, the adverb-form connotatively, and the phrase-form, in connotation. General terms differ very greatly as to the number of individuals they serve to denote, and also as to the attributes they serve to connote. Terms applying to a class composed of only a few known individuals, such as the word planet, can easily have their denotation determined by naming the several individuals; for example, the list, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, gives us the denotation of the term planet, as ordinarily used. But where the class is large or where the individuals composing it change, it is impossible to determine denotation by individuals. Under such circumstances the best that can be done is to name all the sub-classes into which the higher class is divided; thus in the case of the term dog, no one would attempt to make a census of all existing individuals of the class; it would suffice for practical purposes to name the subclasses, poodle, collie, terrier, hound, Great Dane, bull, etc. It is often even more difficult to determine the connotation of a general term. Precise connotation is the aim of all scientific classification; but not infrequently the investigator meets with what may be called marginal cases, i. e., individuals possessing attributes which seem to place them on the border line between two classes rather than definitely in either. For example, a small, fish-like animal called the amphioxus (lancelet) exhibits many of the attributes that characterize the invertebrates; yet in other important points it shows the structure of the lowest fishes, which are, of course, vertebrates. The naturalist is here confronted with an interesting problem in classification and nomenclature. Shall he ignore its invertebrate characteristics, or shall he ignore its vertebrate characteristics? Apart from this difficulty in connotation there is the further fact that we often feel the marks of recognition by which we name things rather than know them. Thus the child recognizes various individuals of the canine family as dogs; but it is scarcely probable that he could name the essential attributes of which the connotation of the term is made up. In spite of these difficulties, or rather because of them, it is an excellent practice to train ourselves to view general terms in both their denotative and connotative functions, remembering that both functions are always more or less present, and should be definitely brought out if we are to know the real meaning. In the connotation we have the material of the definition, and in the denotation the illustration or example which gives the concrete reference to the definition. 22. VARIATION OF DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION. -There is a certain rough inverse relation between the denotation and the connotation of terms that may be expressed by saying that the wider the range of application of a term, the fewer are the attributes that the individuals to which it refers will share in common. For example, it must be obvious on the slightest reflection that a term which is a general name for all Europeans, though referring to more persons, will imply less characteristics in common than a term which names only one nation, say English. In passing from a term referring to a more numerous class to one that can apply only to |