Abstract
This paper explores some of the ambiguities inherent in the notions of generality and genericity, drawing parallels between natural language and mathematics, and thereby obliquely attacking the entrenched view that mathematics is unambiguous. Alternative ways of construing 2N, for example, suggest approaches to some of the difficulties which students find with an algebraic representation of generality. Examples are given to show that confusion of levels is widespread throughout mathematics, but that the very confusion is a source of richness of meaning.
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Mason, J., Pimm, D. Generic examples: Seeing the general in the particular. Educ Stud Math 15, 277–289 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00312078
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00312078