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Language of mathematics

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The language of mathematics is the system used by mathematicians to communicate mathematical ideas among themselves, and is distinct from natural languages in that it aims to communicate abstract, logical ideas with precision and unambiguity.[1]

This language consists of a substrate of some natural language (e.g., English), using technical terms and grammatical conventions that are peculiar to mathematical discourse (see mathematical jargon). It is also supplemented by a highly specialized symbolic notation for mathematical formulas.

Similar to natural languages, discourse using the language of mathematics can employ a scala of registers. Research articles in academic journals are sources for detailed theoretical discussions about ideas concerning mathematics and its implications for society.

“Now mathematics is both a body of truth and a special language, a language more carefully defined and more highly abstracted than our ordinary medium of thought and expression. Also it differs from ordinary languages in this important particular: it is subject to rules of manipulation. Once a statement is cast into mathematical form it may be manipulated in accordance with these rules and every configuration of the symbols will represent facts in harmony with and dependent on those contained in the original statement. Now this comes very close to what we conceive the action of the brain structures to be in performing intellectual acts with the symbols of ordinary language. In a sense, therefore, the mathematician has been able to perfect a device through which a part of the labor of logical thought is carried on outside the central nervous system with only that supervision which is requisite to manipulate the symbols in accordance with the rules."[2]: 291 

See also

References

  1. ^ Bogomolny, Alexander. "Mathematics Is a Language". www.cut-the-knot.org. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
  2. ^ Horatio Burt Williams (1927) Mathematics and the Biological Sciences, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 33(3): 273–94 via Project Euclid

Further reading

Books

  • Keith Devlin (2000) The Language of Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible, Holt Publishing.
  • Kay O'Halloran (2004) Mathematical Discourse: Language, Symbolism and Visual Images, Continuum.
  • R. L. E. Schwarzenberger (2000), "The Language of Geometry", in A Mathematical Spectrum Miscellany, Applied Probability Trust.

Journals

  • F. Bruun, J. M. Diaz, & V. J. Dykes (2015) The Language of Mathematics. Teaching Children Mathematics, 21(9), 530–536.
  • J. O. Bullock (1994) Literacy in the Language of Mathematics. The American Mathematical Monthly, 101(8), 735–743.
  • L. Buschman (1995) Communicating in the Language of Mathematics. Teaching Children Mathematics, 1(6), 324–329.
  • B. R. Jones, P. F. Hopper, D. P. Franz, L. Knott, & T. A. Evitts (2008) Mathematics: A Second Language. The Mathematics Teacher, 102(4), 307–312. JSTOR.
  • C. Morgan (1996) “The Language of Mathematics”: Towards a Critical Analysis of Mathematics Texts. For the Learning of Mathematics, 16(3), 2–10.
  • J. K. Moulton (1946) The Language of Mathematics. The Mathematics Teacher, 39(3), 131–133.
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