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Re: USAGE: Count and mass nouns

From:Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
Date:Monday, January 19, 2004, 7:59
So if there is no difference, how comes that I can
feel one, even if I can't explain it properly ?

I have to think it over. There just must be something
in it.

(Maybe it's just that Yin / Yang is more fundamental
than left / right ? Left / right is a spatial concept,
but is is concurrent to up / down, before / behind,
etc. ? Yin / Yang might be the concept of polarity
itself).

Bu the way, I wonder if any natlang has markers for
left / right distinction. I examined Russian preverbs
rather closely for instance, and there is nothing like
that. I even can't remember what is the conceptual
definition of left / right, except the one that says
that "left is the side of your left hand" :-)

--- Christophe Grandsire
<christophe.grandsire@...> wrote:
> En réponse à Philippe Caquant : > > > >I'm afraid I can't agree, as I explained in another > >reply. Left/right and Yin/Yang don't seem to be to > be > >the same concept (in French: une paire / un > couple). > > They are. Just as you can define Yin without Yang, > you can't define left > without right. They are undissociable, and opposite > (just like top and > bottom, front and back, etc...). Whether the > semantics add some sort of > complementarity doesn't change that as pairs they > behave much the same way, > i.e. they are not definable one without the other. > > Christophe Grandsire. > > http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr > > You need a straight mind to invent a twisted > conlang. >
===== Philippe Caquant "Le langage est source de malentendus." (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus

Replies

John Cowan <cowan@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>