Note 57 — Chapter III

We can, however, adapt the distinction to the case in which the use of terms is fixed by extensive definition. We may say that whilst a proposition (expressed affirmatively and with a copula of inclusion) is intensively verbal when the connotation of the predicate is a part or the whole of the connotation of the subject, it is extensively verbal when the subject taken in extension is a part or the whole of the extensive definition of the predicate. Thus, if the use of the term metal is fixed by an extensive definition, that is to say, by the enumeration of certain typical metals, of which we may suppose iron to be one, then it is a verbal proposition to say that iron is a metal. If, however, tin is not included amongst the typical metals, then it is a real proposition to say that tin is a metal.