[Lazarus] Cycle vs. Circle errors

[Howard Page-Clark]

On 03/1/12 5:43, Mattias Gaertner wrote:

> The term "circle" was translated from German graph theory, but the
> common words in English graph theory are "cycle" and "cyclic".

I'm not familiar with graph theory and the possibly specialist technical 
meanings given there to words in common use.

However, in everyday English neither of the nouns 'cycle' or 'circle' 
has the meaning 'mutual interdependence' except perhaps as a curious 
extension of the metaphor which works poorly if at all.

Whereas the adjective 'circular' can carry a meaning of 'interdependent' 
or 'dependent on itself'. So a 'circular argument' is flawed in that it 
refers to itself rather than to an independently established 
proposition. But in English you would not normally refer to such a 
circular argument as a 'circle' and expect people (apart perhaps from 
graph theorists?) to appreciate immediately what you meant.

Dependency (or interdependency) is the more descriptive term, which does 
not rely on a strained metaphor - although 'mutual dependency' is rather 
a mouthful.