Talk:Grelling-Nelson paradox
From Academic Kids
Is "mispeled" autological? Since it is easily recognizable as a misspelling of the word misspelled, it could be. However, "mispeled" is certainly not a word in English in its own right -- at least, not in modern written English. Thus, it may be no word at all, and hence neither autological nor heterological.
We could say it's a word in Mispeled Inglish language... :-) --Army1987 19:20, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)
If I say aloud the sounds "pro-NOON-said wEYEth AH strawn-GEE ack-SOONT," I have indeed said something pronounced with a strange accent ... :) --FOo 01:15, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)
"But it's not a phrase in English in its own right -- at least, not in modern standard English. Thus, it may be no phrase at all, and hence neither autological nor heterological." Or is it?
Why are confusionful and obfuscating autological? EddEdmondson 16:24, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Because it's confusionful and obfuscating to put them here. ;) --Kenny TM~ 15:07, Aug 22, 2004 (UTC)
Isn't the Grelling-Nelson paradox simply a restatement of Russell's paradox? --Wocky 15:48 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- My thoughts exactly O_o. Shouldn't this be merged, or at least linked?
- Oops. Just noticed it DOES link to Russel's paradox. 'Scuse me.
I really disagree with the notion that ALL words are either autological or heterological. Purple is only heterological because it's written in blue, but if you wrote it in purple, it would be autological. Therefore, this isn't a quality that inheres in the word, but something else entirely.
Say I find a coin on the street and tell myself that the entire universe must be on one side or the other of it. Everything up is on the heads side of the coin, everything down is on the tails side. Then I pick up the coin and press it between my palms. Is this a paradox? How can I be on both sides of the coin at once? Wow, dude, it's cosmic. Whoops, no, it's just nonsense.
You may as well just put the coin in your navel and gaze at it lovingly until the end of time. --The Dogandpony 22:32, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- No. The classes autological and heterological refer only to the word itself, not to any particular presentation of it. For most words that are not adjectives, the question of whether they describe themselves is meaningless. Hence we could either class those words as heterological, or limit the classification to adjectives only. Either way, the paradox still works. – Smyth\talk 14:26, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)
