Category error
Etymology
Coined by Gilbert Ryle in "The Concept of Mind" (1949), from Greek "katēgoria" (a predication or class). Ryle used it to argue that treating the mind as a ghostly thing alongside the body mistakes one logical category for another.
noun phrase · /KAT-uh-gor-ee ER-ur/
A mistake of treating something as belonging to a kind it cannot belong to, like asking what color jealousy is.
What it names
A handle for confusions that arise from misfiling a concept — reach for it when a question makes a grammatical sense that dissolves on inspection.
Example
Asking where in the brain the “self” is located may be a category error, like asking which player on the field is the team.
Related idea
More basic than a mere non sequitur; a category error is not a bad inference but a misuse of concepts that makes the sentence senseless before reasoning even begins.