Note from moderator: Since this item has been discussed adequately before, and is barely on topic, I have digested responses. Though some are amusing, nothing further on the subject will be posted. I take this opportunity to remind everyone that submissions with html are normally discarded, so set your mail client to plain text for submissions to this list. Thanks, Bob Rosebrugh ---------------------------------------------- From: Robert Dawson <rdawson@cs.smu.ca> Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2016 15:46:45 -0400 /A minor comment: // //The correct plural form of "topos" is "topoi", as the plural form of "logos" is "logoi". I vaguely remember that the plural form of "topos" was already discussed on this board. // / / //In ancient Greek, "(ho) topos" is a noun. Here is a citation: "Ton de hyperouranion topon ..." // //(Plato, Phaidros, Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, Tomus II, 247 c). This citation shows that "topos" is a noun. / If we were doing category theory in Classical Greek, this argument would be irrefutable. The claim that it's a noun is, of course, irrefutable anyhow. Embedded in an English sentence, however, "topos" is, a loan word, and the pluralization of loan words is inconsistent. (We also don't decline them.. or we'd be stuck with topou theory!) "Duck-billed platypodes," anybody? Cheers, Robert ------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2016 16:01:08 -0400 (AST) From: selinger@mathstat.dal.ca (Peter Selinger) I would like to add that the correct plural of "color" is "colores". Because as everybody knows, "color" is a Latin noun. For example, here is a citation: "Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridiores sunt in pugna aspectu" (Caesar, Commentarii de bello Gallico, Liber V.14.2)". Proving that "color" is a noun. Therefore, I urge everyone to use "colores" instead of the incorrect "colors" (or worse, "colours")! -- Peter -------------------------------- From: Colin McLarty <colin.mclarty@case.edu> Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2016 15:14:02 -0500 The mathematical word "topos" is not taken from Greek, but from French as a back formation of "topologie." The French plural is "topos," and the English analogue is "toposes." Etymology is always interesting. ------- From: David Yetter <dyetter@ksu.edu> Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2016 21:01:01 +0000 That is, of course, one view on the matter. I'd always inclined to the Gre= ek plural, but Peter Johnstone famously asked whether those of us who take = that view when going out on rambles carry our supplies of hot tea in thermo= i, and I think I have acquiesced to his point of view. Maintenance of the root-language plural in English in preference to simply = adding -s or -es (as appropriate) is much stronger for words from Latin tha= n from Greek, so the appeal to the fact that the Latinate plurals of axis, = simplex, (but not complex), and locus are maintained isn't that strong an a= rgument. Using the Greek plural also opens up the question of whether it sh= ould be pronounced with correct Greek pronunciation or in the way Erasmus t= aught all of northwestern Europe to mispronounce Greek. Best Thoughts, David Yetter Professor of Mathematics Kansas State University ------------------------ From: Tadeusz Litak <tadeusz.litak@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2016 03:25:16 +0100 On 18/11/16 17:33, Johannes Huebschmann wrote:
The correct plural form of "topos" is "topoi", as the plural form of "logos" is "logoi".
Yes, this what ancient Greek would dictate. However, people have argued convincingly that "toposes" is in fact the form intended by Grothendieck. See, for example, footnote 4 in McLarty's “The Uses and Abuses of the History of Topos Theory”. Moreover, the plural form "topoi" is used for too many notions in the humanities (including journal titles). Just try googling for it. And then google for "toposes", for comparison. To me, "topoi" is the plural form for the notion from rhetoric and "Literaturwissenschaft": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_topos https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topos_(Geisteswissenschaft) [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]