Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct

John Cowan wrote:
>
> Gerald Koenig wrote:
>
> > Dyslexia is of some concern to
> > to me as the vector tense system depends on a clear right/left sense.
>
> I have no reading difficulties, but I often confuse left/right and east/west.
> I have no similar troubles with north/south or up/down.
Exactly the same for me.  No dyslexia at all.  But east and west are
fiendish
for me.  I have elaborate mnemonic rituals to remember them.  Left/right
is
less so, but a verbal problem: I'll sometimes shout "left" when I mean
"right."
Could be dangerous. <G>  I seriously fear driving in Britain.

I suspect,
> however that learning to associate past=up and future=down or vice
> versa would be difficult as well.
I think these things depend on what associations one has already made
about
divisions in time.  For me, the future is north and the past is south.
When I see myself standing in space and time, I'm always facing north.
Perhaps that's why I don't mix north and south up, but I do mix east and
west.
If a system required me to revise this entrenched association, I might
have problems with it.

Sally
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