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<div>The devil's always in the details when positing putatively biologically- and/or cognitively-conditioned universals, especially in the use of terms like "many" and "most". If we admit the existence of *any* lgs that don't participate in the universal -
and there certainly appear to be at least some traditional/small-scale languages that show no sign whatsoever of left<>negative / right<>positive associations - then it's hard if not impossible to exclude cultural transmission in cases where we find it (even
when such transmission might be so early that it's hard to reconstruct). For example, the left hand > dirty connotation spreads rapidly into cultures that show no linguistic sign of a pre-existing association, and once that happens, presumably the language
can eventually evolve to reflect it. Sure, there might be a potential for bias implied by the biological facts, but if so it doesn't appear to have operated directly on the forms of languages (as opposed to via secondary cultural transmission) in a uniform
way. </div>
<div>Mark</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>------ Original Message ------</div>
<div>From: "Claude Hagège" <<a href="mailto:claude-hagege@wanadoo.fr">claude-hagege@wanadoo.fr</a>></div>
<div>To: "\"': Lingtyp '\"@listserv.linguistlist.org" <<a href="mailto:': Lingtyp '@listserv.linguistlist.org">': Lingtyp '@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>></div>
<div>Cc: "lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" <<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>></div>
<div>Sent: 3/04/2019 3:15:09 AM</div>
<div>Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Languages with connotations for 'left' and 'right'</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Dear Horia, Danny and all,<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"> Coming back to the « left/right » issue (positive vs negative connotations) of early March, it may be useful to stress that standard Chinese (</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"MS Gothic";color:#1F497D">普通</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:SimSun;color:#1F497D">话</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">
<i>pǔtōnghuà</i>) uses </span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:SimSun;color:#1F497D">左右</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">
<i>zuǒ-yòu</i> («left-right » : in this order, not the reverse) as an « adverb », mostly with the meaning « approximately », « about », and also with the meaning « anywhere », in expressions like
</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:SimSun;color:#1F497D">左右逢源</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"> (<i>zuǒ-yòu féngyuán</i>) « to meet good opportunities everywhere (as by serendipity) ».<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"> Thus, the terms for « right » and « left » may be associated in expressions that transcend their positive/negative connotations by subsuming them in
general spatial, or metaphorically spatial, expressions. I think there are comparable expressions in other South-East Asian languages, such as Thai or Vietnamese.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Best<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Claude</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">De :</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Lingtyp [mailto:<a href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>]
<b>De la part de</b> LIU Danqing<br>
<b>Envoyé :</b> vendredi 1 mars 2019 03:12<br>
<b>À :</b> <a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>; Horia Calugareanu<br>
<b>Objet :</b> Re: [Lingtyp] Languages with connotations for 'left' and 'right'<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">Dear Horia and all:<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""> In varieties of Chinese, there is obviously an asymmetry between 'left' and 'right'. The word for 'left ' often has negative connotations while the word for 'right' doesn't have any positive
connotations.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""> According to the Grand Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Dialects, which is based on 40 dialects, the word for left (zuo, Tone 3, Chinese characters
</span><span style="font-family:"MS Mincho"">左）</span><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""> has negative meanings in 6 dialects, and compound words with this word have negative meanings in other
</span><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">several dialects, but none of the dialects has the word for right (you, Tone 4, Chinese characters
</span><span style="font-family: 'MS Mincho';">右）</span><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Console';">and its compounds </span><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">with positive meanings.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">The word for left denotes:<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">(Yangzhou in Jiangsu) extreme, radical (not in political sense);<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">(Wuhan in Hubei) incorrect, wrong;<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">(Chengdu in Sichuan) out of tune<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">(Guiyang in Guizhou) incorrect, wrong<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">(Changsha in Hunan) mistaking, wrong<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">(Fuzhou in FUjian) improper, dishonest<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console"">In addition, in some Wu dialects near Shanghai and Suzhou, the word for left, 'tsi', is of the meaning 'against the main trend or inclination'.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""> Danny Liu<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""> <o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Lucida Console""><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">On Friday, March 1, 2019, 2:11:38 AM GMT+8, Horia Calugareanu <<a href="mailto:horia.calugareanu@gmail.com">horia.calugareanu@gmail.com</a>> wrote:
<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">Dear all,<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">Thanks so much for all your responses.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">I am sorry for not explaining more of the context of the research topic. I am looking precisely at which means of explanation is more suitable for the left-right
connotation phenomenon.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">The effect seems to be indeed statistically more present at the linguistic level in areas of influence of the Abrahamic religions, as Jürgen Bohnemeyer suggested.
However, superstitions and traditional religions in most cultures also have some sort of bias against the left hand, with right-handers forming an overwhelming majority in all recorded cultures, and amounting to 90% around the world, as Alec Coupe pointed
out. As suggested by most of our colleagues, the distinction is present in many places with no historical links to Christianity or Islam (Northern Australia, the Amazon, Africa, South-East Asia), so I tend to believe the historical/regional explanation must
be ruled out in favour of the cognitive and anthropological ones.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">In studies on handedness across cultures, Hertz (1909) and McManus (2002) have suggested that the right-left binary has also often correlated to other binaries
such as life-death, sacred-profane, male-female, healthy-ill, heavens-earth etc. <o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A"><br>
Hertz, Robert, La preeminence de la main droite. 1909; English translation: Needham, Rodney and Claudia. Death and the Right Hand. 1960.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">McManus, Chris, Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures. 2002<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">Best wishes,<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","serif";color:#26282A">Horia<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
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