This paper argues that the practice of description is frequently understood as definition, which is too often precisely prescription. It contends that reduction to necessary and sufficient features is alien to the natural development and use of conceptual categories like religion, and so an alternative approach to description is recommended.

This thesis has two primary goals: (1) to analyze the countours and extent of the generic category of deity in the Hebrew Bible, and (2) propose a semantic base for the term. It begins with a description of the fields associated with cognitive theory, and particularly cognitive linguistics. Chapter 2 examines the cognitive origins of notions of…[Read more]