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

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Thursday, January 22, 2004, 4:37
Padraic wrote:

> --- Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...> > wrote: > > > But the fact is that, without any natural > > indication, it would have been quite hard to > > define. > > What, left and right? Those are, like, cardinal > directions. Much more fundamental than east or > west. > > > (I wonder how the Inuits know which one is > > their right hand ?) > > They probably do what everyone else in the world > does: look down at their hands... > > You don't need external referents to sort out > left and right. >
We clever earthlings can say: face the rising sun, and North is to your left (or, midway between your front and rear) etc. But what of spherical or 3-sided or multi-armed creatures? What if their sun rose in the West? And North is a convention. Why not say, the compass needle always points south. (I believe old maps by Islamic scholars put south at the top, no?)

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Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>