QUALITY,QUANTITY & DISTRIBUTION

FAWAD AHMAD (51)ZEESHAN KHAN (65)

QUALITY

The quality of a categorical preposition is either affirmative or negative depending upon whether it affirms or denies class memberships.

AFFIRMATIVE QUALITY

• If the proposition affirms some class inclusion, whether completely or partial, its quality is affirmative.

Examples:• All lawyers are wealthy people. (All S are P)• Some chemicals are dangerous. (some S are P)• In the above examples the quality of the class is

affirmative.

NEGATIVE QUALITY IF THE PROPOSTION DENIES CLASS INLCLUSION,

WHETHER COMPLETELY OR PARTIALLY,ITS QUALITY IS NEGATIVE.

EXAMPLES No criminals are good citizens. (no S are P). Some flying objects are not birds. (some S are not

P). In the above examples the quality of class is

negative.

QUANTITY

UNIVERSAL PARTICULAR

UNIVERSAL

If the proposition refers to all the members of the class designated by its subject term, its quantity is universal irrespective of whether its affirmative or negative. “ALL” & “NO” are the indicators of universal quantity.

EXAMPLES

All the movie stars are famous celebrities.No murderer will be given death penalty.In the above example 1 is affirmative & the

other is negative but both subjects to all the members, hence are both universal in quantity.

PARTICULAR

If the proposition refers only to some the members of the class designated by its subject term, its quantity is particular irrespective of whether its affirmative or negative. “some” is the indicators of particular quantity.

EXAMPLES

Some crimes are minor.Some politicians are not graduates.In the above example 1 is affirmative & the

other is negative but both subjects only to some members, hence are both particular in quantity.

DISTRIBUTION

It is the attribute of the terms (subject & predicate) of prepositions. A term is said to be distributed if the proposition makes an assertion about every member of the class denoted by the term, otherwise it is undistributed.

EXAMPLES

All senators are citizen of Pakistan.

• In the above example senators is distributed, but citizen of Pakistan is not distributed, because every senator is a citizen of Pakistan but not every citizen of Pakistan is a senator.

EXAMPLE

No athlete are vegetariansIn the above example the subject term

“athlete” is distributed as well as predicate term “vegetarians” is also distributed, because the whole class of athletes is said to be excluded from vegetarians.

EXAMPLE

Some soldiers are cowards.In the above examples no assertion is

made about all the soldiers & no assertion is made about all the cowards. Hence both are undistributed.

EXAMPLE

Some flying objects are not birds.

• In the above example flying objects is not distributed whereas birds is distributed.

SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION

• In universal affirmative preposition only subject term is distributed.

In universal negative prepositions both subject term and predicate terms are distributed.

• In particular affirmative prepositions neither subject term nor predicate terms are distributed.

• In particular negative prepositions only predicate term is distributed.

THANXXX

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• THE END.