cross-linguistic metaphors (fwd)

[David Erschler]

I don't think that this exists in Russian. t'omny 'dark' is actually used in
the sense "uneducated/benighted", and not "unintelligent", whereas I can't
think of any uses of whatever word meaning "bright" in the relevant sense.

Best,
David

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 4:11 PM, ROOD DAVID S <David.Rood at colorado.edu>wrote:

>
>
> David S. Rood
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Univ. of Colorado
> 295 UCB
> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
> USA
> rood at colorado.edu
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:02:32 -0700 (MST)
> From: ROOD DAVID S <David.Rood at colorado.edu>
> To: linguistics faculty <ling-fac at lists.Colorado.EDU>
> Cc: linguistics grads <ling-grads at lists.Colorado.EDU>,
>    siounists at spot.colorado.edu
> Subject: cross-linguistic metaphors
>
>
> Dear Colleagues:
>
>        I'm trying to tap into the biggest database I know of for knowledge
> of languages, namely all of you.  I have a query from someone who wants to
> know whether a language exists that does not equate "bright" and "dim" in
> the sense of light and shadow/dark with the same words used to describe
> intellectual acuity or lack thereof.  In English we can call people "bright"
> and "dim(witted)" to mean 'smart' and 'not so smart'.
>
>  Do you know of a language that lacks that equation?
>
>        Thanks for your help.
>
> Best,
>        David
>
>
> David S. Rood
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Univ. of Colorado
> 295 UCB
> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
> USA
> rood at colorado.edu
>



-- 
Dr. David Erschler

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and

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