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Re: Polysemy of "long"

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Tuesday, August 23, 2005, 3:47
Sanghyeon Seo wrote:
> English word "long" or Han ideograph 長 may mean either "long in > distance" or "long in time". As I don't know much about other > languages, is this polysemy common? Which languages distinguish two? >
Indonesian, I think, would qualify-- _lama_ means specifically '(a) long time', _panjang_ means 'long (dimension)'. But unless I'm mistaken, you could use panjang in a phrase like "Several long moments passed...." or "there was a long delay". OTOH for Engl. "long way(s)" (as in "New York is a long way(s) from Michigan") you would simply use jauh 'far'. Pretty much the same in my conlang Kash. Spanish too, IIRC. Mucho tiempo 'long(much) time', but largo for measurement.

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