Non-Transitive Word Games

Jeremiah Farrell

Non-Transitive Word Games

Butler University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

"Longer than" is a binary relation R on the set of words with the property that whenever a R b and b R c, we always have a R c. Such relations are called transitive and examples abound: "shorter than", "precedes lexicographically", "scores higher in Scrabble than", etc." Transitive relations often impose a kind of "can you top this" attitude among logologists: "what is the longest word you know?" In this article we wish to avoid transitive relations, and instead play word games that have no "best" answer.

Original language	American English
Journal	Word Ways
State	Published - Aug 1 1995

Keywords

Linguistics

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Non-Transitive Word GamesFinal published version, 376 KBLicense: Unspecified

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Non-Transitive Word Games

Abstract

Keywords

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