On 5/31/2012 8:56 AM, Shawn Steele wrote:
We are missing the JOLLY ROGER.
At least one, there're lots :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_flag#Jolly_Roger_gallery
Ahhhh, glyph variants.
Arrrrr, you're right, missed that :)
No, that's a misunderstanding of glyph variants.
Some of them can be substituted and will be recognized by all as "jolly
roger", others will not.
The former set "may" be glyph variants - that is, if there's no
contrastive usage, the latter cannot be.
Why? Because for symbols, you don't have a word-context that gives you a
definite, secondary clue to the identity of a shape, so the shape alone
has to be recognized. Hence, designs that cannot be recognized for each
other are not glyph variants.
In this case, on top of that, many represent symbols identifying
particular bands, captains or ships (or nowadays, movie cycles). As such
they resemble the distinguishing function of national flags.
A./
