Introduction

To describe things in English, or in any other language, we must refer and classify. We may refer to things by naming, describing, or pointing to them, or by using a combination of these techniques. We may then describe them, or describe them further, by saying what they are like, or what they do, or something of the sort, and in doing so we inevitably classify them. The classifications that we make may have any of a number of different bases. Sometimes we classify things on the basis of some perceived similarity; “… is red” and “… is round” are two such classificatory expressions. Sometimes our classifications depend on some known similarity of function. The predicates “… is a table” and “… is a chair” are descriptive phrases used to classify things according to their functional roles. Sometimes things are classified according to what they do – when we say, for example, that someone is a professor or a butcher. Sometimes we classify things not according to what they are, or what they do, but, rather, according to what they are not, for example when we say of something that it is colourless, or non-English. There are many different techniques for securing reference, and there are probably hundreds of different bases for classifying things.