<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>If it is true, as I believe, that cross-linguistic categories do not exist, the problem of how to name them has no satisfactory solution. The only important point is the distinction between the categories of individual languages and the inevitably vague "cross-linguistic" categories. The best way for marking that distinction is to use a capital in the names of individual language categories, as proposed by Comrie in 1979, according to William Croft. May I recall that I also used the same device in an article in French , "La catégorie de l'éventuel", in <i>Mélanges E. Benveniste</i>, Paris, Société de linguistique, 1975.</div><div><br></div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">Gilbert Lazard,<br>49, av. de l'Observatoire,<br>F-75014 Paris<br><br><a href="mailto:gilzard@orange.fr">gilzard@orange.fr</a><br><br><br></span>
</div>
<br></body></html>