Re: THEORY nouns and cases (was: Verbs derived from noun cases)

A hand is a "part-of" concept (a part of the buman
body), just like a driver's wheel is a part of a car.
Of course, it is easier to dismount a driver's wheel
than a hand (except in Muslim countries, where they
cutt off the hands of thieves), but it is easy to see
where is the borderline between the hand and the
forearm. I doubt very much that the usual concept of
"hand" refers to water and organic compounds: that's a
scientific conception. In Turkey, there is a political
party whose flag shows an open hand. It would be
difficult to draw a belly on a flag.

Why is a fist a noun in many languages ? That's an
interesting question. "To clench one's fists" could be
understood as "to clench one's hands in a fistful
way", but is a fist conceived as en entity ? It seems
to me that it's more a concept like a
"thing-in-a-certain-state". The fact that "a fist" is
a noun doesn't prove anything, since "a departure" is
also a noun, and it doesn't refer to any entity (it's
a deverbal.

In Russian, the word "kulak" (fist) was used for
peasants by the communist government, probably meaning
that hey were hiding grain, or money, in their fists.
To be considered as a kulak meant that all your
properties had to be seized, and you and your family
sent to Sibery.

--- jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM wrote:
> 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.
>

=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


	
		
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