On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 11:25 AM, Ben Bacarisse <ben.use...@bsb.me.uk> wrote: > The use as a noun is not covered here, though it is only a small step > from other places where membership of a mathematical set has turned the > adjective into a noun. "Rational" and "real" started out as adjectives, > but their use as nouns is now widespread. "The function returns a > real". "The result is a rational". It's much less common for complex > and integral, to the point that it sounds wrong to me.
This is a common thing in English (and many other languages). When you find yourself frequently using similar phrases, you abbreviate them: * real number -> real * rational number -> rational * complex number -> complex Thus the adjective acquires a new meaning as a noun. As my mother (and grammar teacher) drummed into me: No word is a part of speech unless it appears in context. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
