The problem here is the assumption that modifiers can be safely ignored.
In the same way that veggie chicken is, obviously, not chicken, a bowl full of potatoes and mayonnaise is not a salad. It is a potato salad, and the word “potato” is doing too much heavy lifting to omit.
If I asked someone to get me a salad, and they came back with a potato salad, I’d assume they were pranking me.
This is why dictionaries list multiple definitions for words.
Mayonnaise and potatoes are called potato salad? Is that some US thing? Where I am from, a potato salad is sliced cooked potatoes, onions, salt, sunflower oil and some vinegar. Much closer to a salad that than mayonnaise abomination.
Maybe so? I mean, I’m exaggerating a little, but those are the two primary ingredients of most of these non-salad “salads” that I would find in a typical diner or supermarket.
Potato salad, egg salad, macaroni salad, and tuna salad are fundamentally mayonnaise, potato/egg/macaroni/tuna, and spices. Probably some chopped onion and herbs as well. They are often nearly-homogenous glop.
I’m sure there are less offensive ways of making these things, and perhaps I would actually consider some of them “salads”. But yes, the glop I described is commonly called “____ salad”. I don’t think it would be reasonable to call them “salads” with no qualifier. These are compound phrases, and it’s best not to get stuck on the etymology.
You can also call a poorly-written headline “word salad”. And yet if I ordered a salad and got a copy of the New York Post, I would be very confused indeed.
France : I’d call cubed potatoes in mayonnaise a salad. A proper potato salad would have sliced pickles and diced ham, but still.
This is what happens when you apply maths without regard to meaning. Perfect example of the adage “Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in a fruit salad.”
Hofstadter and Emanuel’s Surfaces and Essences explores the idea of categorisation in a more serious way.
Is it right to call this a theory?
A theory must be able to make predictions, is this not more of an interpretation?
Chicken soup is obviously a salad
Think I just found my new icebreaker