Peter Easthope (peasthope@shaw.ca) proposed:
According to online dictionaries, categorical and categorial can be synonyms. Almost everyone seems to prefer categorical whereas categorial comes from the simple rule of replacing the last vowel of the noun with "ial".
So, is the preference for categorical just an inheritance from early authors? Is there a stronger reason to use it? Is the explanation in the archive?
It's a lovely "simple rule", Peter, but where does it apply? Certainly not to Allegory, Anthropology, Biology, Botany, Catastrophe, Economy, Geology, History, ..., Numerology, Ornithology, Philosophy, Psychology, ..., Topology, ..., Zoology. "Arterial", from artery, and "peripheral", from periphery, look more like exceptions to, rather than instances of, any rule. Or am I overlooking masses of other evidence? Anyway, has anyone started speaking yet (in English) of Kant's "categorial imperative"? Cheers, -- Fred [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]