Authors/Ockham/Summa Logicae/Book I/Chapter 28

Latin	English
[CAP. 28. DE DESCRIPTIVA DEFINITIONE]	[Chapter 28. On descriptive definition]
(1) Descriptiva autem definitio est mixta ex substantialibus et accidentalibus. Verbi gratia 'homo est animal rationale, erecte ambulativum, latas habens ungues', secundum Damascenum, ubi prius. Ex quo patet quod aliquis sermo praecise componitur ex praedicabilibus per se primo modo, et ille est definitio; aliquis ex illis quae non praedicantur per se primo modo, et ille aliquando est descriptio; aliquis componitur ex utrisque, et ille est descriptiva definitio. Quia tamen omnis definitio et omnis descriptio et omnis descriptiva definitio est sermo, ideo nulla talis est eadem realiter cum definito vel descripto, quamvis significent idem.	Now a “descriptive definition” is a mixture of substantial and accidental terms. For example, ‘Man is a rational animal, walking upright, having broad nails’, according to Damascene as above. From this it follows that one discourse is precisely made up of terms predicable per se in the first mode, and that is a definition; another of what are not predicated per se in the first mode, and sometimes that is a description. Another is made up of both, and that is a descriptive definition. Yet because every definition and every description and every descriptive definition is a discourse, therefore no such thing is really the same as the defined or the described, although they signify the same.