Full Idea
Attribution is something mind brings to completion by constructing propositional connections and disconnections, basing itself on real-world unity possessed by the things being attributed to one another.
Gist of Idea
The mind constructs complete attributions, based on the unified elements of the real world
Source
Thomas Aquinas (De Ente et Essentia (Being and Essence) [1267], p.102)
Book Reference
Aquinas,Thomas: 'Selected Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. McDermott,Timothy [OUP 1993], p.102
A Reaction
This compromise story seems to me to be exactly right. I take it that we respond to the real joints of nature, but using thought and language which is riddled with convention.