Re: CHAT: Of high and noble things ...

taliesin the storyteller writes:
 > * Andreas Johansson said on 2002-04-14 18:36:32 +0200
 > > Are the identifications "high"="noble" and "low"="vulgar, common"
 > > more or less universal, or just a feature of Western traditions?
 >
 > Don't know, but:
 >
 > Have you read the short story "The Acacia Seeds" by Ursula K. LeGuin?
 > Highly recommended. Very interesting attempt at non-human ways of
 > seeing the world. As a matter of fact, I'll go further and recommend
 > everything she's written.
 >
 >
 > t., "up with the queen!" and preaching to the choir

You know, I'd noticed her commentary on this theme in _The
Disposessed_, but it hadn't occurred to me until now that it's the
same idea as "up with the queen".

Here's the section from the first chapter of _The Disposessed_.


"[...]  Each took for granted certain relationships which the other
could not even see.  For instance, this curious matter of superiority
and inferiority.  Shevek knew that the concept of superiority, of
relative height, was important to the Urrasti;  they often used the
word 'higher' as a synonym for 'better' in their writings, where an
Anarresti would use 'more central'.  But what did being higher have to
do with being foreign?  It was one puzzle among hundreds."

This book got me interested in conlanging even more than Tolkien, so
I'm particularly interested to hear any informed answers to Andreas's
question.  The link between "higher" and "better" or "more noble" is
quite arbitrary when considered, but of course it could still be a
universal for terrestrial languages.

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