tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855199626103323785.post4729376503986434899..comments2023-07-07T03:56:01.092-07:00Comments on The Barefoot Doctoral: On time, a dying langage and planar mathBarefoot Doctoralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116876526923906034noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855199626103323785.post-73164362544455338652011-05-25T09:07:40.779-07:002011-05-25T09:07:40.779-07:00There's a Radio Lab episode about a language i...There's a Radio Lab episode about a language in Australia that is so dependent on cardinal directions that it's speakers almost all have dead reckoning. I don't know if this is the language you are referring to:<br /><br />http://www.radiolab.org/2011/jan/25/birds-eye-view/<br /><br />I love the show, but they often make science sexy by confusing anecdote with data. All the same, it's a fun idea to play with.Barefoot Doctoralhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03116876526923906034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1855199626103323785.post-63924414146216101282011-05-25T08:57:58.567-07:002011-05-25T08:57:58.567-07:00The effect of linguistics on the perception of tim...The effect of linguistics on the perception of time is one of my favorite concepts. Even considering a very non-exotic language, Spanish, there are some fundamentally different impression of time. Puscuamperfecto subjuntivo is an entire conjugate form devoted to the future of the past. Yes, you can say similar things in English, but as demonstrated through the magical realism master Gabriel Garcia Marques, Spanish more readily lends itself to less linear interpretations of time than English. <br /><br />I can't find the article, but there was a fascinating study recently about an aboriginal tribe in Australia that has no words for left, right, forward, or backward. Instead of describing things in a relative coordinate system, they describe things in an absolute coordinate system. The bed isn't on the left, it's in the west. I find it rather mind boggling, since once you take me away from mountains, I have no instinctive sense of cardinal direction.Miss MSEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06529587231142371243noreply@blogger.com