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The type–token distinction is the difference between naming a ''class'' (type) of objects and naming the individual ''instances'' (tokens) of that class. Since each type may be exemplified by multiple tokens, there are generally more tokens than types of an object. For example, the sentence " A rose is a rose is a rose" contains three word types: three word tokens of the type ''a'', three word tokens of the type ''rose'', and two word tokens of the type ''is''. The distinction is important in disciplines such as
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from prem ...
,
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...
,
metalogic Metalogic is the study of the metatheory of logic. Whereas ''logic'' studies how logical systems can be used to construct valid and sound arguments, metalogic studies the properties of logical systems.Harry GenslerIntroduction to Logic Routledge, ...
,
typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
, and
computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...
.


Overview

The type–token distinction separates ''types'' (abstract descriptive concepts) from ''tokens'' (objects that instantiate concepts). For example, in the sentence "''the bicycle is becoming more popular''" the word ''bicycle'' represents the abstract concept of bicycles, and is thus a type, whereas in the sentence "''the bicycle is in the garage''", it represents a particular object, and is therefore a token. Similarly, the word type 'letter' uses only four letter types: ''L'', ''E'', ''T'' and ''R''. Nevertheless, it uses both ''E'' and ''T'' twice. One can say that the word type 'letter' has six letter tokens, with two tokens each of the letter types ''E'' and ''T''. Whenever a word type is inscribed, the number of letter tokens created equals the number of letter occurrences in the word type. Some logicians consider a word type to be the class of its tokens. Other logicians counter that the word type has a permanence and constancy not found in the class of its tokens. The type remains the same while the class of its tokens is continually gaining new members and losing old members. The distinction in
computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...
between classes and
objects Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ai ...
is related, though in this context, "class" sometimes refers to a set of objects (with class-level attribute or operations) rather than a description of an object in the set, as "type" would.


Typography

In
typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
, the type–token distinction is used to determine the presence of a text printed by
movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation m ...
:


Charles Sanders Peirce

The distinctions between using words as types or tokens were first made by American logician and philosopher
Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for ...
in 1906 using terminology that he established.Charles Sanders Peirce, Prolegomena to an apology for pragmaticism, Monist, vol.16 (1906), pp. 492–546. Peirce's type–token distinction applies to words, sentences, paragraphs, and so on: to anything in a universe of discourse of character-string theory, or concatenation theory. Peirce's original words are the following.


See also

*
Class (philosophy) A class is a collection whose members either fall under a predicate or are classified by a rule. Hence, while a set can be extensionally defined only by its elements, a class has also an intensional dimension that unite its members. When the ter ...
*
Formalism (philosophy) The term ''formalism'' describes an emphasis on form over content or meaning in the arts, literature, or philosophy. A practitioner of formalism is called a ''formalist''. A formalist, with respect to some discipline, holds that there is no transc ...
*
Haecceity Haecceity (; from the Latin ''haecceitas'', which translates as "thisness") is a term from medieval scholastic philosophy, first coined by followers of Duns Scotus to denote a concept that he seems to have originated: the irreducible determination ...
*
Is-a In knowledge representation, object-oriented programming and design (see object-oriented program architecture), is-a (is_a or is a) is a subsumption relationship between abstractions (e.g. types, classes), wherein one class ''A'' is a subclass ...
*
Map–territory relation The map–territory relation is the relationship between an object and a representation of that object, as in the relation between a geographical territory and a map of it. Polish-American scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski remarked that ...
*
Mental model A mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person's intuitive perception about thei ...
* * Use-mention distinction *
Type theory In mathematics, logic, and computer science, a type theory is the formal presentation of a specific type system, and in general type theory is the academic study of type systems. Some type theories serve as alternatives to set theory as a founda ...
*
Type physicalism Type physicalism (also known as reductive materialism, type identity theory, mind–brain identity theory and identity theory of mind) is a physicalist theory in the philosophy of mind. It asserts that mental events can be grouped into types, ...


References


Sources

*Baggin J., and Fosl, P. (2003) ''The Philosopher's Toolkit''. Blackwell: 171-73. . *Peper F., Lee J., Adachi S., Isokawa T. (2004) ''Token-Based Computing on Nanometer Scales'', Proceedings of the ToBaCo 2004 Workshop on Token Based Computing, Vol.1 pp. 1–18.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Type-token distinction Metalogic Conceptual distinctions Knowledge representation Abstraction Concepts in metaphysics Articles containing video clips Philosophy of logic Philosophy of language Linguistics