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Re: USAGE: Count and mass nouns

From:Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>
Date:Saturday, January 17, 2004, 17:45
--- Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...> wrat:

> I think that with hands, it's just a question > of > laterality. You might have two right - or two > left - > hands ans still be able to lift a washing > machine,
Maybe, but mere laterality is not the point. It's not just two random hands - it is the rightleft of a person together as a unit. This is why such body parts often get dual numbers to begin with.
> though maybe incomfortably, but two men - or > two women > - will never (until further biological > progress) make > a child, which is the reason for which there > happens to be males and females.
Quite. Hence why nimawiro is a dual: it's the manwoman together as a unit that make babies.
> Yin and yang are opposite but complementary, > one > cannot imagine yin without yang and > reciprocally, but > you can imagine having both hands (or even half > a > dozen) on the same side of your body.
Quite. It's the pairing of opposites or complementalities that make for the dual in these instances.
> It's not the > same kind of complementarity. Yin is NOT(Yang), > left hand is not NOT(right hand).
Yes. It's the two together that make a paired unit - a dual object. Padraic. ===== â-dim peresatî Zarathustrô: ko-nare ahî? yim azem vîshpahe a&#331;hêuš astvatô sraêštem dâdaresa. â-dim prcchat Jarathustrah: ko nara asi? yam aham vî&#347;vasya âsoh asthivatah &#347;restham dadar&#347;a. ççoç peparcti Çaratostariyyas: his hanaras ossta? icom acâ, alohostanoççexomes, takam maxamâsanar a-hawisesâ. -- Yasna ix -- Ill Bethisad -- <http://www.geocities.com/elemtilas/ill_bethisad> Come visit The World! -- <http://www.geocities.com/hawessos/> .

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Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>