Re: USAGE: Count and mass nouns
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, January 17, 2004, 19:06 |
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En réponse à Philippe Caquant :
>I think that there might be another dual: the case of
>two complementary concepts (man / woman, day / night,
>yin / yang...). There are two of them, but they are
>not alike (can even be contradictory), and put
>together they form a system (which is not the case for
>hands: one could do with one hand only). This is not
>polarity.
Actually, it's just a natural pairs too. Although one *can* do with one
hand only, you usually expect everyone to have a left hand and a right
hand, just like you expect them to have two eyes and two ears. "day and
night", "man and woman", etc... are just natural pair too (and IIRC in
Maggel the words for "couple", "day" - as in the 24-hour period, not the
lighted period only - are in the dual).
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.
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