Abstract

The chapter discusses a particularly popular approach to category mistakes: the meaninglessness view, according to which category mistakes are infelicitous because they are meaningless. A range of arguments are presented against the view. One central argument concerns principles of compositionality, and it is argued that while adopting a certain version of type-theoretic semantics provides the most promising avenue for defenders of the view to handle compositionality, this approach does not succeed in supporting the view. Other arguments raised against the view concern synonymy facts; embeddings of category mistakes in propositional attitude ascriptions; and uses of category mistakes in metaphors. Finally, some positive motivations in favour of the view are presented but dismissed, and the meaninglessness view as a whole is rejected.