A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

causal chain theory 69
specifically, it refers to the defining properties of these general units: the categories
of the noun, for example, include number, gender, case and countability;
of the verb, tense, aspect, voice, etc. A distinction is often made between
grammatical categories, in this second sense, and grammatical functions (or
functional categories), such as subject, object, complement.
While both of these senses of ‘category’ are widespread, several specific applications
of the term have developed within individual theories. For example, in
scale-and-category grammar, ‘category’ is used primarily to refer to the
notions of class, system, unit and structure, which the theory recognized as
basic. It is also distinguished from segment in Chomsky-adjunction. Most
distinctive of all, perhaps, is the special status given to the term in theories of
categorial grammar, a type of formal grammar devised by logicians in the
1920s and 1930s, and developed by several linguists in the 1950s (in particular
by Yehoshua Bar Hillel (1915–75)). Its distinctive mode of operation involves
the deriving of categories from more basic categories: for any two categories,
P and Q, there is a complex category of the type P/Q, which represents the
operations which may be performed on a given word. For example, given the
basic categories N (noun) and S (sentence), an item such as go would be assigned
N/S, thereby capturing its intransitive status (i.e. go can combine with a
preceding N to produce S). More complex structures can be reduced to simpler
ones using a set of syntactic operations, in which the notion of ‘cancellation’ is
especially important (e.g. P followed by P/Q reduces to Q).
In generative grammar, the set of phrase-structure rules in a grammar
may be referred to as the categorial component, i.e. that part of the base
component of the grammar which specifies such syntactic categories as S, NP,
VP. A categorial rule is a rule which expands a category into other categories.
Also, in some models of generative grammar, the term category feature is used
to refer to a type of contextual feature, i.e. a syntactic feature which specifies
the conditions relating to where in a deep structure a lexical item can
occur. Category features specify which node will be the one to dominate
directly the lexical item, once it is introduced into the phrase-marker (replacing
the corresponding empty (delta) symbol, e.g. [+N], [+Det], [+V]). A category
variable is a symbol which stands for any lexical category. A related term
in this model is strict sub-categorization, referring to features which specify
further restrictions on the choice of lexical items in deep structure. See also
empty (1), govern (2), higher category, type shifting.
category selection
category shifting
see selectional feature
see type shifting
catenative (adj./n.) A term used in some grammatical descriptions of the
verb phrase to refer to a lexical verb (‘a catenative’) which governs the nonfinite
form of another lexical verb, as in one possible analysis of she likes to
write, she wants to see, she hates waiting, etc. In generative grammar, such
constructions are known as control and raising constructions.
causal chain theory In semantics, the hypothesis that the denotation of a
proper name or other expression is determined by the historical chain of