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Lumifer comments on Linguistic mechanisms for less wrong cognition - Less Wrong
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Nope, it does not. Teacups have handles and bowls don't.
It might very well be true that there are English dialects where teacup means a cup with a handle but that's not general usage. Wikipedia start by it's description of teacups by saying: "A teacup is a cup, with or without a handle".
I'm in the process of reading Anna Wierzbicka's Imprisoned in English where she makes the claim that the intent of usage is what distinguishes a cup from a bowl.
So, during the Japanese tea ceremony do they drink the tea out of teacups? I don't think so.
As to Wikipedia, it's funny how they provide two images, one with a handle and one without. The one with a handle is called a "teacup". The one without a handle is called a "tea bowl" :-P
I am not sure why should I grant any authority to Anna Wierzbicka's opinion.
By the way, Wiktionary defines a teacup as "A small cup, with a handle, used for drinking tea".
The main point is that English is quite diverse. Not every language user uses it the same way. The British used to put a lot of value into drinking tea. The Americans generally don't but these days physicalism is quite prominent so it's reasonable when the meaning changes. What used to be about the purpose of the item became a word about whehter or it has a handle.
Are you providing examples for this paper? X-)
No, I reference a well-defined meaning. Physicalism does happen to be about not seeing the purpose of an object as part of its identity. It does happen to be a strong cultural force.
Or... do they?
I don't believe I ever heard the expression "handled bowl" before. It sounds... clumsy.
I drink tea. Sometimes I drink it out of teacups, sometimes I drink it out of tea bowls. The difference between them is quite clear in my mind. Even if I decide to become (more) silly and start putting soup in them, it will not change the teacups into bowls.