Predikátum

Predikátum is a term used in linguistics and logic to denote the predicate, the part of a sentence or proposition that asserts something about the subject. The word originates from Latin predicatus, from predicare “to declare or say before,” and has been adopted into many European languages, often via German Prädikat.

In linguistic usage, predikátum refers to the component of a sentence that expresses what is said about the subject. It typically corresponds to the verb and its accompanying elements that complete the statement about the subject. For example, in the sentence “A kutya ugat,” the predikátum is the verb “ugat” (and any related verbal morphology or modifiers that accompany it). The predikátum conveys action, occurrence, or a state of being, and its structure can include auxiliary verbs, objects, complements, and adverbials, depending on the language.

In logic and mathematics, predikátum (predicate) denotes a property or relation that can hold of one or more objects. It is usually represented as a function P(x1, …, xn) that returns a truth value. Predicates can have different arities: unary predicates apply to a single subject (e.g., Prime(x): “x is prime”), binary predicates relate two subjects (e.g., TallerThan(x, y): “x is taller than y”). Predicates are the building blocks of predicate logic, enabling quantified statements such as ∀x P(x) or ∃y R(x, y).

Overall, predikátum is central to expressing how things are attributed to subjects, whether in natural language sentences or formal logical formulas.