Etymology From sort + -al. Coined by John Locke in 1690 in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
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Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences Of or pertaining to a sort, or kind.
But, it being evident that things are ranked under names into sorts or species, only as they agree to certain abstract ideas, to which we have annexed those names, the essence of each genus, or sort, comes to be nothing but that abstract idea which the general, or sortal (if I may have leave so to call it from sort, as I do general from genus), name stands for.1690, John Locke, “Chapter III: Of General Terms”, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book III:
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Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences Having the character of a sortal.
The possession of sortal concepts is a prerequisite for philosophers like Wiggins or Lowe in determining the nature and extent of our referential capacities.2008 January 8, John E. Sarnecki, “Sortals for Dummies”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 2, →DOI:
sortal
noun
Etymology From sort + -al. Coined by John Locke in 1690 in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
1
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences A type of universal that defines a particular sort of object
And central to this notion is the distinction, among semantic types of g-words, between sortals on the one hand and non-sortal general-character-specifiers on the other1974, P.F. Strawson, Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar, →ISBN, page 135: