"For reasons mentioned at the beginning of this section, we cannot offer here a precise structural definition of semantical category and will content ourselves with the following approximate formulation: two expressions belong to the same semantical category if there is a sentential function which contains one of these expressions, and if no sentential function which contains one of these expressions ceases to be a sentential function if this expression is replaced in it by the other. It follows from this that the relation of belonging to the same category is reflective, symmetrical and transitive. By applying the principle of abstraction, all the expressions of the language which are parts of sentential functions can be divided into mutually exclusive classes, for two expressions are put into one and the same class if and only if they belong to the same semantical category, and each of these classes is called a semantical category. Among the simplest examples of semantical categories it suffices to mention the category of the sentential functions, together with the categories which include respectively the names of individuals, of classes of individuals, of two-termed relations between individuals, and so on. Variables which represent names of the given categories likewise belong to the same category."
React to this quote
More by Alfred Tarski
See allResonant Thoughts
"Decision Points is based primarily on my recollections. With help from researchers, I have confirmed my account with government documents, contemporaneous notes, personal interviews, news reports, and…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"You need to understand that Islam is the problem. I am sick and tired of people here in the West asking me …"
— Wafa Sultan"Mr. Chairman, when Oregonians first adopted the Death With Dignity Act and then defended it on a second bal…"
— Ron Wyden"The identity of Saketa and Ayodhya has, I believe, always been admitted ; but I am not aware that any proof…"
— Alexander Cunningham"If you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did."
— John Fowles"A central purpose of this book is to identify a framework which might link at important points several of t…"
— James D. Thompson"Since the first cell culture was set at the beginning of the twentieth century it was believed that all cul…"
— Leonard Hayflick
