Warps (Some thoughts on categorization)

Language presents paradigmatic regularities, together with the usual syntag matic ones that syntax is designed to capture. This article proposes a way of deriving systematic hierarchies by analyzing linguistic categories throu gh the algebraic structure of numbering systems (hence by way of dimensions , each recursively defined on the previous). The goal is not to equate 'ver tical' structuring and 'horizontal' syntax, but rather to explore the prope rties of the former in order to predict certain well-known implicational fa cts. New recalcitrant data are also brought to bear on the issue, as well a s a proposal for acquiring lexical categories in present terms which, it is argued, successfully mimics the acquisition sequence by infants.