Björn wrote:
> Just out of curiosity I would like to know if what APL called idioms
> is also called idioms in J or if people prefer to call it phrases in J
I don't like "phrases" because it is too generic; any J sentence or clause is a
"phrase". Others deprecate "idioms" because it
implies the meaning is unpredictable given the component words (e.g. "kick the
bucket"), whereas the meaning of a J idiom is
completely predictable from (in fact, is determined by) its components words.
What we need is a word that means "common, useful, memorable phrase" or "a
phrase that is so common it is essentially a word, and is
easily recognized and recalled"*. How about:
Aphorism: A concise definition, notably memorable.
Of course, we have other choices: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saying . I
love WP!
-Dan
* This "the phrase as a word" is the motivation for the use of "idiom",
because as a word is composed of letters, and its meaning is
unrelated to those letters, so a idiom is composed of words, and
its meaning is unrelated to those words; I think there is a technical
linguisitic term for these "component words", and I thought it was
"lexemes", but WP disagrees.
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