6.6. Whereabouts on a scale?

| Chapter 6: Descriptions |

| 6.6. Whereabouts on a scale?

Adjectives are often used in English to give a sense of where something is on a sliding scale. We talk about "a tall man" and "a short man", but without meaning that all men are either tall or short. If pushed, we might say that tall means about 6 feet and up, short means about 5 feet 6 and down, but we more often compare one person's height against another's.

Inform allows us to use adjectives in the same way. For example, every container has a number called its "carrying capacity". We can define:

> Definition: A container is huge if its carrying capacity is 20 or more.
> Definition: A container is large if its carrying capacity is 10 or more.
> Definition: A container is standard if its carrying capacity is 7.
> Definition: A container is small if its carrying capacity is 5 or less.

These definitions are similar to those in the previous section, but have a very specific (and strictly enforced) shape to them. The adjective must be a single word. We have to say "its" (i.e., of it), not the ungrammatical "it's"; we have to specify a property, and a literal value of it, and we must either give an exact value or else conclude with "or more" or "or less". If we create something with one of these properties:

> The basket is a large container in the Shop. The thimble is a small container in the Shop. The matchbox is a standard container in the Shop.

then they will have the most moderate values they can have, that is, the basket will have carrying capacity 10 and the thimble 5 (and of course the matchbox 7). Both of the following tests will then fail:

> if the basket is huge ...
> if the basket is a small container ...

because the basket is neither huge nor small, but somewhere in between.

Sometimes the meaning of adjectives must depend on their context, as we see from the following example, where we assess heights in inches:

> A person has a number called height. Definition: A man is tall if his height is 72 or more. Definition: A woman is tall if her height is 68 or more.

Inform then judges whether someone is or is not "tall" using different standards for men and for women, and

> In the Shop are a tall man and a tall woman.

creates a man 72 inches tall and a woman 68 inches tall.

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