Talk:Vish (game)

dictionary used for playing the game

I am not sure that this game can realy be played by using a standard monolingual dictionary. Is it not possible that you want to use a dictiomary of synonims instead? Apogr 06:48, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)~ by the same token you could also devise a game where the objective is to identify a word used in a definition, but not possible to located among the entries of the dictionary sorted in alphabetic order. That is to check your glossary for completion, a basic criteria in information processing, alas, in recursion, a misunderstood, restrictively conceived process. Apogr 16:31, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

the word circ is not in his book Science: Sense and Nonsense

I have tagged the article as {{unreferenced}}, because the word circ is not in his book, Science: Sense and Nonsense, although he does discuss vicious circles in dictionaries. The contents can be searched online here. --Jtir 20:38, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Synge calls the game vish in his two books, Science: Sense and Nonsense and Kandelman's Krim: A Realistic Fantasy.[1] Further, H.S.M. Coxeter and Alan Watts call it vish.[2][3]

So, I propose renaming this article to Vish (game).

• vish is an abbreviation of vicious circle.
• vish may also refer to Vishnu, the Hindu deity.

--Jtir (talk) 14:04, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Quotes from http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search:

• "The game then starts all over again. Vish is no game for children. It destroys that basic confidence in the reasonableness of everything which gives to ..." Science: Sense and Nonsense - Page 24 by John Lighton Synge (1951) [4]
• "... and the parlour game of Vish. In order to show the dangers which arise when mathematics impinges on reality he brings in the ..." The Dublin Review - Page 96 (1953) [5]
• "No such dictionary appears to exist, and so actual dictionaries provide scope for JL Synge's game of Vish (from vicious circle): contestants choose a word, ..." Puzzles and Paradoxes - Page 76 by T. H. O'Beirne (1965) [6]
• "At this point you have won the game; you have a VISH. Precisely because dictionaries use words to define words, we cannot learn the meanings of all words ..." Imagination in Research: An Economist's View - Page 116 by George Wells Ladd (1987) [7]
• "The Oxford linguistic philosophers used to play a game called 'Vish' ... and so on, until someone finds the original word and cries 'vish! ..." Risk and Morality - Page 24 by Richard V. Ericson, Aaron Doyle (2003) [8]
• "J. L. Synge ... has described an amusing and instructive game called Vish (short for "vicious circle") ..." Projective Geometry: A Practical Introduction - Page 5 by H. S. M. Coxeter (2003) [9]
• "All such philosophers should play Vish. Each player is given a copy of the same dictionary. A referee draws a word from a hat, and immediately the players ..." In My Own Way: An Autobiography 1915-1965 - Page 141 by Alan Watts (2007) [10]

--Jtir (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Vish in language education classrooms

Removed as unsourced for a month:

"It has become a popular and effective activity in language education classrooms."

--Jtir (talk) 23:23, 22 August 2008 (UTC)