What do connectives and plurals have in common? The linguistic expression of ad hoc categories

The aim of this paper is to raise new questions for linguistic research, taking into account the linguistic expression of a particular type of categorization process, namely the construction of ad hoc categories. It will be shown that, based on a preliminary set cross-linguistic data, the strategies used to refer to ad hoc categories are mobilized from a variety of different grammatical areas, ranging from connectives to special plural forms and derivational affixes. It will be argued, however, that the selection of the grammatical strategies is not random, but is rather connected to the more general function of constructing sets, which is naturally close to the construction of categories. Finally some remarks on the role of context and on the role of exemplars in the construction of ad hoc categories are made.