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blanks is applicable only to verbs or predicates concerning actions, according to Peirce's logic of relatives. In fact, in Aristotle the word 'rhema' means only 'verb'. However, Peirce identifies many times rheme with term: "any symbol which can be a direct constituent of a proposition is called term" (2.238). There are also syncategorematic terms, whereas "any term fit to be subject of a proposition may be termed onoma" (2.331). In any case, a common noun is a 'rhematic symbol' (2.261). In 8.337 we are told that class names and proper names are also rhemes. The choice of the term 'rhema' could be due to the fact that Peirce maintained that even nouns are reified verbs (3.440 and 8.337). To settle definitely the question, ''a rheme is any sign that is not true nor false, like almost any single word except 'yes' and 'not'" (8.337).
In many instances Peirce makes recourse to the blank form when dealing with adjectives and nouns; in 1.363 the method is applied to lover and servant, and in 4.438 there is the following example of rheme: 'every man is the son of', which constitutes a perfect example of semantic representation of the item 'father' viewed from the standpoint of a logic of relatives. The affinity of such a perspective with the one of a case grammar based on a logic of action will become more clear in section 7.3.1. It is obvious that, from such a point of view, "proper nouns stand, but the demarcation of common nouns from verbs becomes indefensible," and "meaning of nouns in his logic of relatives, like that of verbs, lies in possible action" (Feibleman, 1946:106-107, with reference to the passage which will be examined in the following section).
7.2.6.
The best examples of how a term can be resolved into a network of marks (this network constituting its meaning) are given in 1.615 and 2.330, with the definition of the words 'hard' and 'lithium'. In 1.615 we we are told that "so long as the stone remains hard, every essay to scratch it by the moderate pressure of a knife will surely fail. To call the stone hard is to predict that no matter how often you try the experiment, it will fail every time." In 2.330 it is said that "if you look into a textbook of chemistry for a definition of lithium you may be told that it is that element whose atomic weight is 7 very nearly. But if the author has a more logical mind he will tell you that if you search among minerals that are vitreous, translucent, grey or white, very hard, brittle, and insoluble, for one which imparts a crimson tinge to an unluminous flame, this mineral being triturated with lime or witherite rats-bane, and then fused, can be partly dissolved in muriatic acid; and if this solution be evaporated, and the residue be extracted with sulphuric acid, and duly purified, it can be converted by ordinary methods into a chloride, which being obtained in the solid state, fused, and electrolyzed with half a dozen powerful cells will yield a globule of a pinkish silvery metal that will float on gasolene; and the material of that is a specimen of lithium."

 
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