I'm interested in "predicated of", but which the ODO below doesn't explicitly define:
predicate = [with object] 1. {Grammar & Logic} state, affirm, or assert (something) about the subject of a sentence or an argument of a proposition
What are the similarities and differences between 'predicated of', 'predicated as'
, and 'predicated + {some other preposition}? Google Ngram depicts a difference, but not Google Books as linked?
Best Answer
A predicate is always related to the subject of the clause or sentence of which it is a part.
Take these examples, for instance:
Birds fly - 'Birds' is the subject; 'fly' is a simple predicate.
Birds fly south in winter - 'Birds' is the subject'; 'fly south in winter' is a complex predicate.
In both cases, the action of flying is predicated of (tells you something about) the birds.
You could say the action of the birds is predicated as 'flying', but what would you say 'flying' was predicated as? It wouldn't make sense to say 'flying is predicated as the birds' - it's meaningless. Both uses given in your linked examples above related to the grammatical distinction between subject and predicate, which is, in turn, a distinction between substance and attributes, which form the basic distinction of Aristotle's Categories of Being.