cross-linguistic metaphors (fwd)

[Mary C Marino]

Hello Anthony:  As far as I know this is not current anywhere in N 
America - I certainly haven't heard it in Canada.  If 'bright' has come 
to mean 'atheist', does it follow that 'dim' means 'believer' (of 
whatever faith community)?  Mary




On 20/02/2011 9:54 AM, Anthony Grant wrote:
> David: I don't have any good counterexamples, but I assume you know the
> very modern sense of 'bright' as meaning 'atheist'?
> Anthony
>>>> ROOD DAVID S<David.Rood at Colorado.EDU>  20/02/2011 15:11>>>
>
> 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
>
>
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