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<p>In much of Indonesia, the left hand is associated with bodily
functions and thus has negative connotations: you're not supposed
to eat with your left hand, or give something to somebody (or take
something from them) with your left hand. Also, in many parts of
Indonesia, frames of reference are allocentric (e.g. north/south,
seaward/landward, upriver/downriver). And the two regions
intersect in several places, such as — to cite just one example —
East Java, which has all the left-hand taboos, and uses cardinal
points for directions. (A few days ago I was in a restaurant
there, asking for the loo, and the man said Go through that door
and then turn east.)</p>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 28/02/2019 19:22, Horia Calugareanu
wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:CAAmpGLLzYGgwxVNMd7S1FRCNU4VereCeeH-U0NQUgrmo68owrQ@mail.gmail.com">
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Dear colleagues,<br>
<br>
I am putting together a semantic typology in order to test the
following hypothesis:<br>
<br>
Across languages, the word for left (side/direction) (or some
derivation of it) tends to get a negative connotation, whereas
the word for ‘right’ gets a positive one, if the effect exists.<br>
<br>
Apart from Indo-European languages, where the effect is widely
present, this is a non-exhaustive list of languages which prove
the thesis: Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Fula, Golpa,
Hungarian, Malay, Turkish.<br>
<br>
Do you know of any other (preferably non-Indo-European)
languages which help confirm or infirm the generalisation?<br>
<br>
Finally, I am also researching whether the effect holds anyhow
in languages with allocentric frames of reference (i.e.
uphill/downhill, or north/south, instead of left/right). I
haven’t been able to find any due to scarce resources, but some
examples of languages with non-egocentric FoR are Tseltal,
Haillom, Guugu Yimitirr, Kuuk Thaayorre. <br>
<br>
Thank you very much. <br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
Horia Călugăreanu<br>
University College London</div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816
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