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Single Idea 18012

[filed under theme 2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / b. Category mistake as syntactic ]

Full Idea

A syntactic theory of category mistakes would require not only general syntactic features such as must-be-human, but also highly particular ones such as must-be-a-grape.

Gist of Idea

Category mistakes as syntactic needs a huge number of fine-grained rules

Source

Ofra Magidor (Category Mistakes [2013], 2.3)

Book Ref

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.36

A Reaction

Her grape example comes from Hebrew, but an English example might be the verb 'to hull', which is largely exclusive to strawberries. The 'must-be' form is one of Chomsky's 'selectional features'.

The 5 ideas with the same theme [category mistakes as result of syntax errors]:

18719 Grammar says that saying 'sound is red' is not false, but nonsense [Wittgenstein]
18735 Talking nonsense is not following the rules [Wittgenstein]
18011 Category mistakes seem to be universal across languages [Magidor]
18012 Category mistakes as syntactic needs a huge number of fine-grained rules [Magidor]
18013 Embedded (in 'he said that…') category mistakes show syntax isn't the problem [Magidor]