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]