[Lexicog] Circular definitions

[Rudolph C Troike]

This is not about ambiguity, but interesting circularity. One of my
favorite class exercises is to review the traditional "definition" of a
Noun as "the name of a person, place, or thing", and then have students
look up the word "thing" in various dictionaries, and follow each of the
words used in the definition, such as "entity", which in turn gets defined
as "thing" (sometimes with several steps in between).

Some years ago, thinking that I would find a solidly-anchored definition
in the word "cow", I looked it up in (I think) the then-current edition of
the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, and found "the female of any
species the male of which is called a bull". So I looked up the definition
of "bull", and -- you guessed it -- found "the male of any species the
female of which is called a cow".

	Rudy




Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/