Dear Frank, One thing I noticed when I moved from London to Brighton was the difference in direction language. In London it seemed usual to say its on the left of the street, but here on the coast, far more people say its on the east side.
Best wishes, Jackie Jackie Jones 50° 50 09 N. 0° 07 40 W. From: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Frank King Sent: 18 February 2011 07:59 To: bren...@verizon.net Cc: Sundial List Subject: Re: upside down world Dear Brent, You have started an interesting train of thought. You, and others who have replied to you, should dig out the February 2011 issue of Scientific American and read the article: How Language Shapes Thought This is subtitled: The languages we speak affect our perceptions of the world The article notes that some languages have no words for left and right and speakers of these languages use north, south, east and west instead. You say: I think north and south, east and west, up and down, top and bottom are arbitrary directions that could change if we wanted to. The article argues (and I am only partially persuaded) that perception of direction and allied matters depends in part on culture and language. If you look at a car from one side, you might say "the front of the car is on the left". If you walk round the other side you would say "the front of the car is on the right". Speakers of languages which lack left and right would say the front is to the north (or whatever) in both cases. To do this requires a strong sense of where north is, otherwise you are stuck for words. It turns out that even very young children can tell you the direction of north to quite high precision from the most unlikely of clues. I thought this would be a very useful trait to have when setting out sundials! Frank H. King Cambridge, U.K. --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1435/3451 - Release Date: 02/18/11
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