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Re: Letf / Right, was Re: Count and mass nouns

From:Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Date:Thursday, January 22, 2004, 3:11
Philippe Caquant wrote:
> > Yeah, and how would you define the words left and > right ? How would you explain them to an ET, without > pointing at them with your finger ? > > How do you know that your right hand is not the left > one ?
Because that's not what it is? How do I know that a blue object isn't green? How would you explain "red" to an ET without pointing at a red object? (And without reference to wavelength, which would be an arbitrary division anyways, and clearly wasn't available for most of human history for definition) You just say "This object is green. Things with similar color are also green". Of course, it's more complex than that, since "similar color" is a culturally dependent characteristic. So, you have to see what color many other objects are called before you can hope to understand such words. -- "There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd, you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." - overheard ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

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John Cowan <cowan@...>