One can add that "modus" often can be translated "method", as in "modus
operandi" = "method of operating", and sometimes "manner" as in "modus
vivendi" = "amnner of living" or "life style". Also "ponens" and "tollens"
are present participles, which can be translated as follows: "ponens" =
"putting" or "asserting" or "establishing", etc.; "tollens" = "removing" or
"getting rid of" or "negating", etc.. Often participles are translated
into English and other modern languages with prepositional phrases.
Similarly with the gerund "ponendo" = "putting", "asserting",
"establishing" etc.. Thus we have, for example (translations are almost
always, if not always, context-dependent and hence multivalued):
modus ponendo ponens = method of establishing by asserting [the hypothesis]
modus ponendo tollens = method of establishing by negating [the conclusion]
modus ponens = method of asserting
modus tollens = method of negating
ponens = asserting
tollens = negating
It doesn't look like we can reduce the phrases any further, except of
course with abbreviations, such as, say, m.p. and m.t. Note that m.t. is
homophonous in English with "empty", which no doubt implies we can -- or
should -- go no further.
Gordon Fisher gfisher@shentel.net