Semiotics in French

The eighteenth entry is le carré sémiotique, and the noun in it does far more work in French than « square » does in English. Here it is a diagram: two terms, their contraries and the negations of each, set out at four corners. Outside the seminar room the word attaches itself to almost anything with four sides that somebody has cut, served or sat around. At the hairdresser’s, un carré is a bob, hair cut level all the way round, and un carré plongeant is the version that dips towards the chin. At the butcher’s, un carré d’agneau is a rack of lamb, the ribs left joined in one block. On a warship, le carré des officiers is the wardroom where the officers eat. At the card table, un carré d’as is four aces, and a square of silk knotted at the neck is simply un carré de soie. English can say « square » in some of these places and not in others, so translate by the setting rather than by the dictionary: a mirror, an oven, a ship and a poker table each want a word of their own.