Abstract

Strawson aims in this work to explain the foundation of the basic combination of subject and predicate on which logic rests and to develop a more comprehensive view of subject and predicate in the light of the general notion of grammar. Goals and are addressed in parts 1 and 2, respectively. Though aim might seem to be less plausible than given the complexity and diversity of the grammars of natural languages, nevertheless, since all language-users share the same broad-based categories of thought about the world, any developed language will contain elements that fall under one of these categories. Here lies the link between and. As in the foundation of the subject-predicate duality in logic is the categorical distinction between particular and universal in ontology and/or perceptual object and concept in epistemology, so in, given that same categorical duality, we should expect to find that all language-types share certain basic structural features. We should even expect to find that some ways of satisfying some of the basic requirements of essential grammar in the various language-types are more natural to us than others.