Single Idea 18016

[catalogued under 2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / c. Category mistake as semantic]

Full Idea

The principle that if 'p' and 'q' are meaningful sentences then 'p and q' is a meaningful sentence seems highly plausible. But now consider the following example: 'That is a number and that is green'.

Gist of Idea

Two good sentences should combine to make a good sentence, but that might be absurd

Source

Ofra Magidor (Category Mistakes [2013], 3.2.2)

Book Reference

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.56


A Reaction

This challenges the defence of the meaningfulness of category mistakes on the basis of strong compositionality.

Related Idea

Idea 17999 Strong compositionality says meaningful expressions syntactically well-formed are meaningful [Magidor]