Kategorialtaan

Kategorialtaan is a Dutch term used in academic contexts to denote analysis or reasoning that proceeds in a categorial or category-based manner. The word stems from kategorial, meaning relating to category or grammatical category, combined with an adverbial suffix -taan, producing a sense of “in a categorial way.” In linguistics and philosophy, it is used to indicate that a study or argument organizes elements primarily by their categories or types rather than by other features such as phonology or frequency.

In linguistics, kategorialtaan is commonly associated with categorial grammar and related formal frameworks, where syntactic structure is constructed from the combination of symbolic categories (for example, N, V, A, or more fine-grained types) using inference rules or combinators. Describing an analysis as kategorialtaan emphasizes that category assignments and their interactions drive the derivation of phrases and sentences.

The term is relatively niche and mainly found in Dutch-language writings; English-language discussions typically refer to categorial grammar or category-based analyses rather than using the adverb itself. It functions more as a methodological descriptor than as a distinct formal theory in its own right.

See also: Categorial grammar, type-logical grammar, Lambek calculus, category theory.