Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

[peasthope]

Apologies in case this story is in the archive.  I failed to find it.

According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be 
synonyms.  Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas 
categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of 
the noun with "ial".

So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early 
authors?  Is there a stronger reason to use it?  Is the explanation 
in the archive?

Thanks,            ... Peter E.



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Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

[Michael Barr]

Someone (Lambek?) used a title of the sort "On categorical and categorial
grammars".  Categorial grammars are based on grammatical categories such
as noun, verb, etc.  That doesn't explain why categorists have always used
"categorical", but it is a minor reason not to change.  Of course, the
major reason is that there is no reason to change.

Michael

-- 
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in
moral philosophy--the search for a superior moral justification
for selfishness.  --J.K. Galbraith


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Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

[Graham White]

One factor might be that the philosophical tradition also has the
terminology "category", but means rather different things by it,
and they tend to use "categorial" (I think, but I haven't really
checked). In particular, both Kant and Husserl use categorial a lot.
So (since we started using the word category later than the philosophers
did) saying "categorical" is a way of avoiding confusion.

(Philosophers do use the pair hypothetical/categorical as a way of
talking about preconditions for assertions, but that's so different from
what we do that it's unlikely to cause confusion). All of this is off
the top of my head, and could do with checking.

Graham

On 06/09/12 19:39, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
> Apologies in case this story is in the archive.  I failed to find it.
>
> According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be
> synonyms.  Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas
> categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of
> the noun with "ial".
>
> So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early
> authors?  Is there a stronger reason to use it?  Is the explanation
> in the archive?
>
> Thanks,            ... Peter E.
>
>
>



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Re: Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

[Charles Wells]

Logicians also use "categorical" to refer to a theory with just one
model.  --Charles

On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 10:39 AM, Graham White <graham@eecs.qmul.ac.uk> wrote:
> One factor might be that the philosophical tradition also has the
> terminology "category", but means rather different things by it,
> and they tend to use "categorial" (I think, but I haven't really
> checked). In particular, both Kant and Husserl use categorial a lot.
> So (since we started using the word category later than the philosophers
> did) saying "categorical" is a way of avoiding confusion.
>
> (Philosophers do use the pair hypothetical/categorical as a way of
> talking about preconditions for assertions, but that's so different from
> what we do that it's unlikely to cause confusion). All of this is off
> the top of my head, and could do with checking.
>
> Graham
>
> On 06/09/12 19:39, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
>>
>> Apologies in case this story is in the archive.  I failed to find it.
>>
>> According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be
>> synonyms.  Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas
>> categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of
>> the noun with "ial".
>>
>> So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early
>> authors?  Is there a stronger reason to use it?  Is the explanation
>> in the archive?
>>
>> Thanks,            ... Peter E.
>>
>>
>>
>

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Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

[Robert Seely]

AFAIK, the only (main?) use of "categorial" is in the context of
categorial grammar (a monoidal-category approach to linguistics,
roughly) - and it'd probably cause confusion now if it moved into
other applications of category theory.

-= rags =-

On Thu, 6 Sep 2012, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:

> Apologies in case this story is in the archive.  I failed to find it.
>
> According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be
> synonyms.  Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas
> categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of
> the noun with "ial".
>
> So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early
> authors?  Is there a stronger reason to use it?  Is the explanation
> in the archive?
>
> Thanks,            ... Peter E.
>
>
>
>

-- 
<rags@math.mcgill.ca>
<www.math.mcgill.ca/rags>


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Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

[Robert Dawson]

On 06/09/2012 3:39 PM, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
> Apologies in case this story is in the archive.  I failed to find it.
>
> According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be
> synonyms.  Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas
> categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of
> the noun with "ial".
>
> So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early
> authors?  Is there a stronger reason to use it?  Is the explanation
> in the archive?

 	Firstly, the usage goes back far before category theory. The early
authors include Kant and W. S. Gilbert.

           Secondly, I think "categorical" has always been the more
common usage.

 	Robert


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Re: Terminology; categorical versus categorial.

[Peter Selinger]

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the etymology of
"categorical" derives, via Latin, from Greek kategorikos, which seems
to be a Greek adjective derived from kategoria.

This seems to be consistent with other English words deriving from
Greek adjectives ending in -kos, such as logikos (from logos) and
graphikos (from graphein), explaining "geographical", "psychological",
and so on.

I found one online source claiming "Greek adjectives that end in -kos
do not describe the substance out of which something is made. They
describe the force that is animating the thing in question", but I
don't know if it's a reliable source. See also page 28 in this book
(from 1772, copyright probably expired):

books.google.com.ar/books?id=o6EDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA28

-- Peter

peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
>
> Apologies in case this story is in the archive.  I failed to find it.
>
> According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be=20
> synonyms.  Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas=20
> categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of=20
> the noun with "ial".
>
> So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early=20
> authors?  Is there a stronger reason to use it?  Is the explanation=20
> in the archive?
>
> Thanks,            ... Peter E.
>

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