Re: How to spell out Roman numerals


On Mon, Nov 9, 2020 at 02:53 AM, Luke Davis wrote:
why in the world are we still using Roman Numerals?
1. Because they look pretty on a clock face.
2. Because they are handy to differentiate parts of Outline structure.
3. Because of the vagaries that are the history of writing, whether jargon or regular.   If I see the word stage followed by a Roman numeral I immediately think cancer or other medical staging while if it's an Arabic numeral I think something else, whether a physical location, one of a number of options (stage 3 as opposed to stage 2 in multi-stage performing arts center), etc.

No one ever said natural language, or its conventions, "make perfect sense."   Heck, natural language, whether spoken or written, always involves unresolvable abiguity on the reader's or listener's end or else "misunderstandings" in the literal sense would not be possible.



     ~ Kelley Boorn


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