rectangle vs. square

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 9:36 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
> And yet this discussion began with Wilson's complaint:
>> Has it become the case that a "square" is no longer considered to be a
>> kind of rectangle, whereas a "rectangle" can be only an oblong?
>
> which I take to mean that, at least for *some* speakers, "square" was a special case of
> "rectangle" at some point in the past. It is probably true that, as you say, for most
> present-day ordinary-language speakers, this is not true; the explanation via implicature
> might at least provide a mechanism for a change in meaning.
>

In the first grade, who, other than the teacher, has even heard the
word, _geometry_? Yet, given a set of names - true definitions aren't
necessary - and a set of rules, any fool can grasp the concept that
squares, oblongs, and triangles are subsets of something greater. Put
together on your lieral desktop two cardboard cutouts and you have
what the teacher tells you is a "square." Not news, of course. You're
practically born knowing what these shapes are.

But have you ever considered making them with your bare hands
yourself, just like that? Not likely! Well, not amongst the colored,
at least.

Put two "squares" together in a certain way and you have an "oblong."
Put another "oblong" together with the "oblong" that you've just made
out of two "sqares" and you have a "square," again! Then, it turns out
that you can do the same thing with "triangles"!

When you learn this stuff at an early age - *long* before your mind is
occupied with larger questions, such as whether, if you hit on that
chick, you'll get over and, if you do, will taking advantage of that
leave you with enough time to finish that paper that Prof. Z assigned,
if you don't hit-&-run, but, if you do h-&-r, will she be so angry or
hurt that, next time, she'll simply shine you on, you're looking for a
"relationship" and you don't want to blow your chances, OTOH, Prof. Z
has been hearing the same lame excuses that he himself used to use for
years, so why would he go for *your* game? etc., etc. - you don't
easily forget it. And you sometimes begin to wonder, How can anyone
else doubt this? Why, *I've always* known it!
--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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