In recent decades, research on clear and approximate categorizations and their manifestations in language has been generating a number of studies on syntax, semantics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, philosophy, and logic. This is particularly interesting because these two operations have formally similar realizations even in languages belonging to different groups. The existence of a large number of type nouns testifies to their productivity. If these nouns serve to both categorize and approximate, the fundamental question is that of identifying the processes of interpretation concerned, since there is not always a consensus on interpretation. This book makes it clear that there are different ways to reach the category associated with a word by putting into perspective the issues surrounding the categorization and approximation and by comparing the ways of expression in languages belonging to different language groups.
All in all, by investigating syntactic, morphological, and semantic correlations between type noun binominals and other constructions in various languages, this volume will provide an overview of the current state of research on the subject in order to help scholars and students to grasp the meaning and the cognitive foundations of approximation and categorization. The functioning of each language might clarify the links between categorization and approximation, two often opposed, yet essentially indissociable, operations.
