[Lingtyp] Languages with connotations for 'left' and 'right'

[Randy J. LaPolla]

Dear Horia,

> 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. 

This is certainly the case in Old China, where left is east (the primary orientation in Chinese thought is to the south), male, yang, strong, and auspicious, and right is west, female, yin, weak, and inauspicious. The correlations of left and right have not stayed consistent over the thousands of years of recorded Chinese history, though, and there are cases of ‘left’ being used for ‘wrong’ or at least ’not the usual'. In some cases there is a secondary causation for a correlation, e.g. there is an old expression for getting demoted, which is 左遷 zuǒ qiān ‘move left’, but this was due to the Chinese characters being written top-to-bottom and right-to-left: in listings of officials, those in higher positions would be written first (i.e. would be further right on the page), and so if one was demoted they would be moved further to the left on the page, hence the euphemism for being demoted.

All the best,
Randy
-----
Randy J. LaPolla, PhD FAHA （羅仁地）
Professor of Linguistics, with courtesy appointment in Chinese, School of Humanities 
Nanyang Technological University
HSS-03-45, 48 Nanyang Avenue | Singapore 639818
http://randylapolla.net/
Most recent books:
The Sino-Tibetan Languages, 2nd Edition (2017)
https://www.routledge.com/The-Sino-Tibetan-Languages-2nd-Edition/LaPolla-Thurgood/p/book/9781138783324 <https://www.routledge.com/The-Sino-Tibetan-Languages-2nd-Edition/LaPolla-Thurgood/p/book/9781138783324>
Sino-Tibetan Linguistics (2018)
https://www.routledge.com/Sino-Tibetan-Linguistics/LaPolla/p/book/9780415577397 <https://www.routledge.com/Sino-Tibetan-Linguistics/LaPolla/p/book/9780415577397>



> On 1 Mar 2019, at 2:11 AM, Horia Calugareanu <horia.calugareanu at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> Thanks so much for all your responses.
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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. 
> 
> Hertz, Robert, La preeminence de la main droite. 1909; English translation: Needham, Rodney and Claudia. Death and the Right Hand. 1960.
> McManus, Chris, Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures. 2002
> 
> Best wishes,
> Horia
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