Intersective Gradience
Bas Aarts · 2006
Abstract Recall that at the end of Chapter 3 I introduced the notion of IG as follows: IG involves two form class categories a and b, and obtains where there exists a set g of elements characterized by of a subset of a-like properties and a subset of b-like properties. When there is gradience between two categories a and b we will say that these classes ‘converge’ by virtue of the fact that there exist elements which display properties of both categories. Given this definition, we can view IG as a kind of ‘intercategorial resemblance’. I will maintain that grammatical categories are strictly bounded, and do not overlap. The inter- section is between g and the full set of a-like properties, and between g and the full set of b-like properties.