I feel a bit dirty defending a text I don’t particularly agree with but:
I don’t believe it’s fair to label as “misuse on the part of speakers” usage that is sanctioned by a leading dictionary. Secondly, I didn’t, at first, so much insist on the distinction between “outdoor life” and “inner life”, but between “real world” and “conceptual” concerns. I agree this line of reasoning would hold better if it was “topography” and not “topology”. I don’t question the choice of geometry, though, as the rigour that has been traditionally associated with it and its conceptual nature fits with the rest of the chart.
Using topology as a synonym for topography needlessly makes the English language a less effective tool for communication. We already have a perfectly serviceable word for topography, namely topography. And topology already has a completely different meaning. Adding pointless ambiguity to the language just doesn’t make sense.
Yes, but tsunamis also interact with the surface of the land and its geological features, and I believe it was in this sense that the word “topology” was used in that quote.
I grant you that it would certainly be a good thing if there was absolutely no confusion between the words “topology” and “topography”. But when definitions like the above show up in respected reference works, I think it’s a little hard to take someone to task for “misusing” the word topology.
The English language evolves and while that may render it “a less effective tool for communication”, I think you have to acknowledge its changes–even if you don’t necessarily like them. “Misuse” today is standard usage tomorrow and dictionary editors and readers all have to scramble to keep up.
Er, and also the math-y bits that some folks study. As for coffee:topology:geometry, the topologists I know drink coffee (even the Brits!) on a regular basis. I try not to associate with geometers because they’re always integrating things and I don’t feel that I measure up.
Further, Merriam-Webster is a descriptive rather than a prescriptive dictionary. It tries to say how people use the language and smooths over the fact that people misuse it. As I’ve said before and will say again, “Merriam-Webster can suck it.”
As I mentioned before, we’ve got plenty of both and they drink both. I’m by turns a topologist and a geometer, and I drink black coffee through the day and tea at teatime (M-Th).
Have you noticed any correlation in your own life? I mean, do you tend to drink coffee while topologizing, and tea while geometrizing?
Given what all’s been said before, I think (if there’s anything to it at all) it’s a matter of conformity vs. nonconformity. Tea is conformist, coffee is nonconformist. Geometry is conformist, topology is nonconformist (being geometry without a metric).
I’m not saying I agree with this analogy, I’m just guessing what the authors had in mind.
Yes, but the OED shows that “topology”, in a geographical context, goes back to at least 1850, which is more or less the time when Johann Benedict Listing coined the term in mathematics. I must disagree that “topology” as the study of changes in topography is a mis-use. However confusing, there seems to be enough serious usage to back up its legitimacy.
Still, even if it was a mis-use, being noted in pretty much all major dictionaries, I think the odds that the authors would mis-use the word in a rather arbitrary and un-scientific chart are non-negligible.
I dunno about that part, in the United States at least. Coffee is generally treated as the default hot drink here, and if you can get tea at all, it’s generally just by special arrangement. I notice, for instance, that my church never talks about “tea and donuts” after services.
geometry, the topologists I know drink coffee (even the Brits!) on a regular basis. I try not to associate with geometers because they’re always integrating things and I don’t feel that I measure up.