Argument deletion shows that predicates which appear to have a fixed degree also admit fewer arguments: "John is eating a cake" entails "John is eating", suggesting "is eating" is both dyadic and monadic.
The fixed number of argument positions a predicate takes; a monadic predicate takes one argument, a dyadic predicate takes two, a triadic predicate takes three, etc.
entails(describes a logical relationship between statements)
Logically forces or guarantees; if A entails B, then whenever A is true, B must also be true.
predicate(Logical/grammatical ontology in Eisagoge)
Either a sound signifying a meaning or a meaning signified by a certain sound
In natural language, however, many predicates appear to be multigrade or variably polyadic; i.e., they can be used with different numbers of arguments, as they can be true of various numbers of things. For example, we say “John is lifting a table”, with “lifting” used as dyadic, as well as “John and Mary are lifting a table”, with “lifting” used as triadic. Moreover, there is a kind of inference, called “argument deletion”, which also suggests that many predicates that prima facie could be assig