more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Words are not always a good guide to the existence of categories: there may be several words which label the same categories (synonyms). and the same word can be used for quite different ideas. Some categories may exist without being labelled.
Gist of Idea
Several words may label a category; one word can name several categories; some categories lack words
Source
Roy Ellen (Categories, Classification, Cogn. Anthropology [2006], I)
Book Ref
Ellen,Roy: 'The Categorical Impulse' [Bergahn Books 2008], p.4
A Reaction
This is the sort of point which seems obvious to anyone outside philosophy, but which philosophers seem to find difficult to accept. Philosophers should pay much more attention to animals, and to illiterate peoples. Varieties of rice can lack labels.