Re: THEORY nouns and cases (was: Verbs derived from noun cases)
From: | <jcowan@...> |
Date: | Thursday, April 29, 2004, 20:07 |
Andreas Johansson scripsit:
> Um, on that logic, just about any everyday concrete noun is a good
> counterexample - a hand, afterall, is just one out of a very strictly limited
> set of configurations of mostly water and some organic compounds.
Well, no. A hand is not defined by the material it's made from -- cells are
dying and being replaced, and within each cell, atoms exchange and recirculate
constantly: you have essentially no atoms in common, except iron, with yourself
two years ago. But a fist is a particular state of a hand, not a chose-en-soi
in any meaningful sense; we do not have a noun meaning "curled-up toes",
for example.
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