Denoting.

The notion of denoting, like most of the notions of logic, has been obscured hitherto by an undue admixture of psychology. The whole theory of definition, of identity, of classes, of symbolism, and of the variable is wrapped up in the theory of denoting. The notion is a fundamental notion of logic, and, in spite of its difficulties, it is quite essential to be as clear about it as possible. The notion of denoting may be obtained by a kind of logical genesis from subject-predicate propositions, upon which it seems more or less dependent. The simplest of propositions are those in which one predicate occurs otherwise than as a term, and there is only one term of which the predicate in question is asserted. A denoting phrase consists always of a class-concept preceded by one of the six words or some synonym of one of them.