Re: OT: Chinese Philosophy (Was: Re: USAGE: Count and mass nouns)
| From: | <jcowan@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 15, 2004, 19:24 |
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Axiem scripsit:
> I'm lost. Is there a separate word for "white-horse" from "horse", or is it
> a "horse" with a "white" adjective?
The latter. Literally the sentence says just what I said it said: four
words, "white horse not horse". Classical Chinese doesn't have a copula.
> Or is this just the idea that two objects are not both the same object?
The idea is that although every individual white horse is of course a horse
(and that would be the normal understanding, making the sentence false), the
total mass of White-Horse is not the same -- indeed it is a component of --
the total mass of Horse. In a mass-centric language, this interpretation
is equally available.
--
Income tax, if I may be pardoned for saying so, John Cowan
is a tax on income. --Lord Macnaghten (1901) jcowan@reutershealth.com
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