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In academic writing, it is common to refer to or prove properties about the main object of an article.

If I prove a property for (some object), I know I can use the phrase:

Property X holds for the object Y.

But, can an object hold a property?

Furthermore, object Y holds some additional properties.

It always sounded "natural" to me (I'm not a native speaker), but now that I'm trying to verify my sentence construction using Google, I just can't seem to find anything useful.

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An object holding a property can imply something different: "Looking at the specification the objects of the connections variable doesn't seem to hold a property/function to check if the connection is still alive." stackoverflow.com/questions/13662089/… –  Kris Feb 14 '13 at 15:13
@Kris how is that example different? Can you please elaborate? –  penelope Feb 14 '13 at 15:27
It is elaborate and more at the link. If that doesn't help, you need more background preparation in the subject of OOP, not the English language. –  Kris Feb 15 '13 at 6:56
@Kris, I've been programming for years now. But the "property" in OOP comes from exactly that -- you're modeling an object, and methods (functions) belonging to that object will model the properties of that object (... "which that object holds") –  penelope Feb 15 '13 at 10:27

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up vote 1 down vote accepted

Property X holds for the object Y.

This uses hold in the sense "to be valid or true". We can also use "holds true for".

Furthermore, object Y holds some additional properties.

This is using hold in the sense "to have, to possess". So it's valid, but that the same word is used for each is a coincidence.

The latter is a rare use though. I would favour has or maybe exhibits, over holds as more usual.

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I was aware of the fact that it's used with a different meaning, as you said "the sense you use it in is different". It was just somebodies comment when reading my writing: "I've seen this already in the form A (1st example), but not in this form B you're using (2nd example)" But, thank you for your answers, especially fore more common alternatives. –  penelope Feb 14 '13 at 12:58
@John Hanna. The second form is not rare in academic writing. –  The Frog Feb 15 '13 at 1:51
@TheFrog all the better then. Would you say it was as common as exhibits or has, though? –  Jon Hanna Feb 15 '13 at 10:14
@TheFrog That must be where I picked up the phrase in the first place :) –  penelope Feb 15 '13 at 10:28

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