Collective terms have been classified as general terms. It must be borne in mind, however, that such may be made singular by some modifying word. For example, _people_ is a general term, but _American people_ is a singular term in that it refers to one people, being thus limited by the word American.
_A concrete term is a term which denotes a thing_; e. g., this man, that tree, John Doe, denote in each case a thing. Man and tree, denote many things. All are concrete.
_An abstract term is a term which denotes an attribute of a thing_; e. g., whiteness, patience, squareness, are abstract terms.
Such words as red, honest, just, are concrete; while redness, honesty, justice, are abstract.
On first thought it might be inferred that “red” is the name of an attribute just as much as “redness.” This is a mistaken thought, however, as when we use the word red we mean red something――an _object_ which is red in color, not the color itself. For example, in saying the house is red, we refer to the thing that is red, not to the color redness.
Descriptive adjectives, because they describe things, are concrete. They do not alone name qualities of things, hence they are not abstract.
=8. CONNOTATIVE AND NON-CONNOTATIVE TERMS.=
_A connotative term is one which denotes a subject and at the same time implies an attribute._ (A subject is anything which possesses attributes.)
All concrete general terms are connotative because they denote subjects and at the same time stand for certain attributes; e. g., “man” denotes many subjects; in fact, it stands for all the men in the world; it also implies rationality, the power of speech, power of locomotion, etc. “Triangle” stands for all plane figures of three sides; it likewise stands for the qualities, three-sided, three-cornered, etc. Both “man” and “triangle” are connotative.
_A non-connotative term is one which denotes a subject only, or implies an attribute only._ Such words as Boston, Columbus, The Elizabeth White, denote a subject only. “Blueness,” “justice,” “width,” imply an attribute only. All these terms are non-connotative. The words blue, just, wide, are connotative. “Blue,” for example, denotes all blue things, as the blue sky, the blue sea; at the same time “blue” implies that something possesses the quality, _blueness_.