A whole of primary predicates may solely be called "a (predicate) catena" if it has been demonstrated or postulated that it comprises a predicate which is neutral between a predicate or set of predicates which are positive and a predicate or set of predicates which are negative. It depends on the language spoken, among others, how easily or plausibly this can be done. If the ordinary variant of that language has already an expression for the positivity and for the negativity, and ideally also one for the neutrality, the tripartite structure of the complex system of secondary predicates can often be immediately ascertained. Such is particularly obvious for triads like the one of electropositivity, electroneutrality and electronegativity. But also happiness, cheapness, quickness, honor(-ing), more and acid with their concatenate, limiting and opposite, predicates may be considered examples of more or less explicit triads. In the case of all these and similar catenas the two monopolarities have their own names in ordinary language, and are recognized, too, as opposites in this language (even when the neutrality is taken notice of, and the opposites are not alone). The expression for the one monopolarity is thus often formed by adding a prefix like un- or dis- to the term for the other; unhappiness and dishonor are but two examples. In the event that the neutrality of the catena in question does not have its own name (like equal or neutral in the sense of not electrically charged or neither acid nor basic) it is either disregarded or described in a rather circumlocutory and/or inadequate way (usually in terms of (neutrally) neither .. nor ..).

The phenomenon that there is a compact atomic expression for a predicate in ordinary or colloquial language one time, and that one needs to have recourse to circumlocutions another time, is of course a subjective, reflectional criterion of subdivision for predicates or predicate catenas. Whatever the reasons may have been, or still are, it is the positivity and the negativity which are or have been judged of enough weight to deserve a simple name in the case of explicit triads, and not the neutrality and bipolarity, for instance. The reason to speak of "triad" even if no neutrality is recognized in addition to the two monopolarities is that this recognition of neutrality is a prerequisite for speaking of a catena at all; the duad of two 'inseparably connected' predicates just is not a catena per se.

Insofar as the language which is our present means of communication does not have a general expression for explicit triads or their predicates, we will call these catenas after their positivity. Conversely, the positivity of an explicit triad is the predicate after which it is called. Thus electropositivity is the positivity of the electropositivity catena; happiness the positivity of the happiness catena; more or moreness the positivity of the moreness catena; and so on. Unless there are nonlinguistic, systematic reasons not to do so, we shall conceive of predicates denoted by terms prefixed with un-, dis- or similar prefixes as negativities. Hence, unhappiness, dishonor, inelasticity, and so on, 'are' negativities.

Love is the positivity of the love catena of which hate is the negativity. Should one believe that hate is the positivity, then love is the negativity of the hate catena. Since explicit triads are called after their positivities, they may also be referred to as "positivity catenas".