Well, I share some of the instinctive scepticism about tidy theories of syntax/semantics. But I don't have any real reason to claim that they don't work. Synta

Well, I share some of the instinctive scepticism about tidy theories of syntax/semantics. But I don't have any real reason to claim that they don't work. Syntactic theories aim to explain why particular sentences are grammatical or ungrammatical (in the judgments of native speakers). If you can accurately do that, then yes, you've put each word into one category (as far as making up grammatical sentences). So to say the kind of thing you're saying, you'd have to explain why the current research programs in syntax are misguided.