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

--- jcowan@REUTERSHEALTH.COM wrote:

> Nope, it depends on the language/culture.
> There are definitely languages
> that think absolute directions (not always
> compass points, can be things
> like upriver/downriver, coastal/inland) are
> more fundamental than self-relative
> ones like left/right, front/back.
Could be - but that too is a cultural thing!
There are ~6B humans on Earth now and every
single one of them (std. discl.) has a left and a
right. Not everyone lives near rivers or coasts
or whatever.

In other words, the person's culture may not see
left/right as basic - but left/right is
nevertheless basic. Hell, chirality, L/R gets
right down to the molecular and even subatomic
domains.

Padraic.


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