Abstract

The chapter begins by identifying the phenomenon of category mistakes, and clarifying the aims, scope, and motivations of the project. The phenomenon is identified by ostension via paradigmatic examples (e.g. ‘The number two is blue’ or ‘Green ideas sleep furiously’). The primary aim of the project is to account for the infelicity of category mistakes, while paying close attention to the intricacies of the phenomenon. A central motivation is the fact that there are plausible accounts of category mistakes in terms of each of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, making the phenomenon particularly fruitful in exploring the nature of and relations between these three fundamental realms of language. After outlining the structure of the book, the chapter proceeds to provide a historical survey of the (modern) treatments of the topic in each of philosophy, linguistics, and computer science.