Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.64 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.64
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
A predicate is, according to the followers of Apollodorus, what is said of something; in other words, a thing associated with one or more subjects; or, again, it may be defined as a defective expression which has to be joined on to a nominative case in order to yield a judgement. Of predicates some are adjectival [and so have personal subjects], as e.g. “to sail through rocks.” Again, some predicates are direct, some reversed, some neither. Now direct predicates are those that are constructed with one of the oblique cases, as “hears,” “sees,” “converses”; while reversed are those constructed with the passive voice, as “I am heard,” “I am seen.” Neutral are such as correspond to neither of these, as “thinks,” “walks.” Reflexive predicates are those among the passive, which, although in form passive, are yet active operations, as “he gets his hair cut”:
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.64 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.64
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesDefines predicates, the parts of a sentence that complete a subject, and sorts them into direct, reversed, neutral and reflexive types with examples like hears, I am seen and walks. Grammar reference with no practical advice.
Older wording
- “oblique cases”
- — grammatical forms of a noun other than the subject form
- “nominative”
- — the grammatical form used for the subject of a sentence
- “Reflexive predicates”
- — verbs where the doer is also affected by the action
Themes and situations
- Speech and silence
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