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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 9:20 PM
Subject: 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.
>
British dailies use Europe to refer to the rest of the EU, usually,
excluding Britain, rather than the whole continent.  But it was fairly
obvious, I thought, that that was what he meant when he said "Europe".