Propertydenoting

Propertydenoting refers to linguistic expressions whose primary semantic contribution is to denote a property or set of individuals sharing that property, rather than pointing to a specific object or a proposition. In semantic analysis, many property-denoting expressions behave like unary predicates or nominalizations, and they participate in predication and modification.

Common categories include adjectives such as red, tall, intelligent, which denote properties that can be ascribed to objects; and nominalizations like redness, beauty, sweetness, which name properties themselves as abstract entities. Some phrases combine a property-denoting word with a noun to form a property-rich predicate, as in red apples or tall woman, where the adjective denotes a property applied to the noun’s extension.

In formal semantics, a property-denoting expression denotes a set of individuals; equivalently, a unary predicate or a characteristic function. The truth of a sentence with a predication involves whether the object(s) in question belong to the property set. For example, in Only tall people passed, tall denotes the property of tallness and the statement quantifies over people with that property.

Propertydenoting expressions contrast with object-denoting terms like proper names or demonstratives, which pick out individuals, and with proposition-denoting terms which express truth conditions. They are central to discussions of predication, modification, and generalization in linguistic theory.

See also: predication, unary predicate, nominalization, adjective, property.