Re: Using METONYMS; was: O Duty (Was: "If")

On Sun, 23 May 1999 22:20:23 -0700, Sally Caves <scaves@...>
wrote:

>what have any of you done along these lines in your conlangs?  If
>"caduceus" stands for "medicine," and "book" for university education,
>and "crown" for monarchy or government, and "plough" for agriculture,
>"coin" for commerce, or some such term, "ship" for trade, "sword" for
>military,
>then what for religion (Teonaht is eclectic in its embracing
>Christianity,
>Islam, Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, and retaining its own pagan
>religions--
>there are Jews in Tsorelai Mundya, but they are not Teonim)?  What other
Neat idea in general. Religion would be even tougher to make concrete in =
a
Kolagian language, since non-humans have such a variety of equivalents =
for
religion; the Nikta might use a harp (representing music), Mizarians =
might
use a representation of a foot (for ritual dances), and Zireen would
undoubtedly use a flower (representing sexuality). None of these =
traditions
have much to do with spirituality as it is imagined in human religions.

But I like the idea of using concrete representations of abstract =
concepts,
and might borrow it for the Mayushi Sangari language. Rather than
"caduceus", though, they might use something like the alien equivalent of
"willow bark" or "foxglove".

--
languages of Kolagia---> =
+---<http://www.io.com/~hmiller/languages.html>---
      Thryomanes        /"If all Printers were determin'd not to print =
any
   (Herman Miller)     / thing till they were sure it would offend no =
body,
   moc.oi @ rellimh <-/  there would be very little printed." -Ben =
Franklin