Re: Letf / Right, was Re: Count and mass nouns
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, January 23, 2004, 13:32 |
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En réponse à Philippe Caquant :
>Maybe, but the fact is that for (likely) 99,99% of
>mankind, East is the direction of sunrise. Language
>conforms to human experience.
Rather: language *names* human experience. Vocabulary items are
conventionally applied to phenomena we witness, and that's all the meaning
they contain. So ultimately you cannot separate word meaning from
experience. Defining words from other words is just delaying the inevitable
(the fact that most dictionary definitions are circular should be evidence
enough :)) ), because eventually you always end up having to point out
something and say "this is *X*", because there's just no other way to
explain what the word *X* means.
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.
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