rectangle vs. square

[Robin Hamilton]

> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: rectangle vs. square
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ... (Trust me on this: I'm a professional mathematician, specializing in
> geometry.)
>... In other words, *semantically* the
> word "rectangle" applies to squares, but *pragmatically* it almost never
> will. (I might use
> it that way, but mathematical language deliberately defies the conventions
> of
> implicature.)
>
> Jim Parish

Sometimes the roles can be combined -- E.A.Abbott not only published
_Flatland_ in 1884 but earlier wrote his  _Shakespearean Grammar_ (1880).
Both are books which can still be read with pleasure and profit today.

A hard act to follow.

(But there was also, of course, Lewis Carroll.)

Robin

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