On 06/09/2012 3:39 PM, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote:
Apologies in case this story is in the archive. I failed to find it.
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?
Firstly, the usage goes back far before category theory. The early authors include Kant and W. S. Gilbert. Secondly, I think "categorical" has always been the more common usage. Robert [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]