Ad hoc categorization and languaging: the online construction of categories in discourse

The aim of this special issue is to describe the process of ad hoc categorization in discourse, by focusing on its close relation to what has been labeled languaging. The construction of categories is much more pervasive in discourse than one might assume, involving the use of various discourse strategies through which speakers concur towards as diverse goals as the individuation of the relevant exemplars to build the category upon, the overt naming of the category, its fine-tuning, and the delimitation of its boundaries. All these strategies represent an important aspect of the speakers’ cooperative behavior, and involve the (often creative) exploitation of grammatical domains such as number and plurality, lexical derivation, and connectives, as well as the use of more transparent constructions through which categories are constructed and discursively manipulated (general extenders, exemplification/reformulation constructions, lists, etc.). The commonalities and differences characterizing these linguistic means, however, have never been systematically investigated under the umbrella of the process of ad hoc categorization. The present special issue aims to fill such a gap.