with regard to the word “water”; for “water” is used of semen and other things, as He says:

“From a gushing fluid.”

One also says “rose water,” but this does not fall within the designation “water” when it is unqualified, only when it is qualified. If we consider what is common to the unqualified expression “water” and the qualified expression “water,” this is the absolute without the condition of being unqualified. Thus, one says: “Water is divided into unqualified water and water with an added qualifier.” The category being divided has no unqualified designation of its own; rather, the context indicates comprehensiveness and generality, as when we say: “Water falls into three categories.”

Here, too, there are three things: the category being divided, namely water in its general sense, which is the absolute without any condition, but which has no single-word expression of its own, only a compound expression; the unqualified category, namely the expression subject to the condition of being unqualified; and the second category, the qualified expression, namely the expression subject to the condition of being qualified. This is because a speaker either leaves an expression unqualified or qualifies it: there is no third possibility. When he leaves it unqualified, it has one meaning; when he qualifies it, it has another. Furthermore, when he qualifies it, he does so either with a qualification that makes it general or with one that makes it specific. An example of a qualification that makes it general is his saying, “Water falls into three categories”; an example of one that makes it specific is his saying, “Rose water.”

Once the distinction between qualifying and leaving an expression unqualified, on the one hand, and qualifying and leaving a meaning absolute, on the other, is understood, it becomes clear that a meaning likewise has three states: it may be absolute, qualified by generality, or qualified by specificity.

Absolute meanings are of two types: the absolute subject to the condition of absoluteness, and the absolute without any condition. The same applies to expressions: an unqualified expression may be unqualified subject to the condition of being unqualified, as when we say “unqualified water”