more from Noam Chomsky

Single Idea 18009

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

Full Idea

The view of Chomsky in 1957 that category mistakes are syntactically well-formed but meaningless is a very standard one.

Gist of Idea

Chomsky established the view that category mistakes are well-formed but meaningless

Source

report of Noam Chomsky (Syntactic Structure [1957]) by Ofra Magidor - Category Mistakes 1.3

Book Reference

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.19


A Reaction

I'm going off the idea that they are meaningless, largely because I am beginning to sympathise with the view that any composition of meaningful components is meaningful (even if blatantly false).

Related Idea

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