Re: CHAT: cultural interpretation [was Re: THEORY: language and the brain]

Quoting Joe <joe@...>:

> > Quoting Stone Gordonssen <stonegordonssen@...>:
> >
> > > >but we still, by and large, have more liberties than most people
> > > >elsewhere in the world.
> > >
> > > Try being a chronically-ill partnered Gay non-Judeochristian man
> > > in the USA for a while, then we'll speak about how liberties in
> > > the USA compare with those in Europe.
> >
> > Have you ever been to, say, Istanbul, or Moscow? By Europe, you
> > must surely mean "a few metropolitan centers in western Europe,
> > such as Amsterdam, Berlin or Paris".  The idea of giving homosexuals
> > privacy in their own home is by no means universal in Europe (the
> > continent).
>
> I assume he meant the European Union.  Just like when you say 'America',
> you mean the USA.
Except that in the English speaking world there is as yet
no settled convention to that effect.  I read British dailies
most every day, and I see "Europe" refer to the continent,
as opposed to the UK, as frequently as to the EU.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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