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From: lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,talk.philosophy.misc,sci.lang
Subject: Re: Categorization: Lakoff's mistake.
Message-ID: <2915@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 89 13:22:14 GMT
References: <674@cogsci.ucsd.EDU>
Organization: University of Hawaii
Lines: 35

From article <674@cogsci.ucsd.EDU>, by zhang@cogsci.ucsd.EDU (Jiajie Zhang):
" ...
" The core of classical theory of categorization is set-theoretical
" model, which consists of nothing but abstract entities and sets, and
" sets of sets, and sets of sets of sets, etc.

Most any sort of formal system can be constructed on a set theoretical
foundation.  Any functional relation can be represented as a set.
So?  Is everything that can be represented as a set a "classical
category"?  Hardly.

" Linguists (especially
" those in generative linguistics) simply take for granted the classical
" theory of categorization.

If this were so, it should be possible to examine a generative theory
and point to where the assumption(s) of classical categories are introduced.
I suggested that for the case of Montague grammar, one could not find
such assumptions.  You don't seem to have found any yet.  Repeating the
thesis won't pass for proof.

" This is true of every aspect of generative
" linguistics.  In generative phonology, distinctive features are those
" such as +voiced and -aspirated; sets are those such as segments marked
" +F.

Yes, sets everywhere we look.  But classical categories?  In generative
phonology pronunciations are categorized by their underlying
representations.  Since an arbitrary number of arbitrary transformations
express the relation between underlying and surface, there is no
classical categorization.  (One could contrast this with Daniel
Jones' theory of the relation between phonemes and allophones, which
does appear to be a classical categorization.)

		Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu