Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
The only one I know about for sure is French. For the rest, I'm guessing. Does Portuguese have verbs like 'axer' or is the concept rendered differently?

That particular one, no. But we regularly use other spatial expressions like 'plane' ('no plano económico'😉 or even 'sphere' (e.g. 'na esfera política'😉.

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
But these are not derived from mathematical concepts, which is the small point I'm trying to make.

But the point I'm making is that in Romance languages the distinction is marginal because the terms are more intuitively perceived as spatial.

Originally posted by Palynka
But the point I'm making is that in Romance languages the distinction is marginal because the terms are more intuitively perceived as spatial.

I guess so.

Originally posted by Palynka
Interesting, I never noticed that.

But tangential is also a mathematical concept... or, at least, derived from one. To be even more precise, they all seem to be geometrical concepts. Have you read Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought? I bought it last week but haven't started it yet. Supposedly it's related to how we use spatial references to descr ...[text shortened]...
Edit: Which would seem to indicate that it's not alien at all to the Anglo-Saxon mentality.

Great book! I've read several of Steven Pinker's books and they're always highly entertaining and informative - The Stuff of Thought is no exception.

Originally posted by PBE6
Great book! I've read several of Steven Pinker's books and they're always highly entertaining and informative - The Stuff of Thought is no exception.

Cool. I'm looking forward to it. What other books of his do you recommend?

Originally posted by Palynka
Cool. I'm looking forward to it. What other books of his do you recommend?

How the Mind Works was the first one I read, and it was fantastic. Admittedly I did get a little bored in some of the early-middle chapters when he was discussing the eye (it just seemed like a long section at the time), but the majority of the book was fun to read. The Blank Slate was pretty neat too, especially the part where he discussed the "hot button" topics like politics, religion, sex, etc...

I'm also looking forward to a new book by Daniel J. Levitin called The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. I read another book of his, This Is Your Brain On Music, and found it fascinating, so I'm hoping this one will be too.

Originally posted by PBE6
How the Mind Works was the first one I read, and it was fantastic. Admittedly I did get a little bored in some of the early-middle chapters when he was discussing the eye (it just seemed like a long section at the time), but the majority of the book was fun to read. The Blank Slate was pretty neat too, especially the part where he discussed the is Is Your Brain On Music[/i], and found it fascinating, so I'm hoping this one will be too.

Have you read Looking for Spinoza? It's about the importance of feelings and emotions in shaping the way we think, but all very solidly from a neurological perspective. The nice thing is that he is able to be both very precise and entertaining at the same time.

http://www.harcourtbooks.com/authorinterviews/bookinterview_Damasio.asp

Originally posted by Palynka
LOL! It's exactly orthogonal.

One is about how others treat the speaker and the other is how the speaker treats others.

But, by all means, keep banging on about your supposed knowledge of rhetoric. It's entertaining.

you are a stupidhead.

That better?

Originally posted by Palynka


But, by all means, keep banging on

T.S. was right

Originally posted by Palynka
Have you read Looking for Spinoza? It's about the importance of feelings and emotions in shaping the way we think, but all very solidly from a neurological perspective. The nice thing is that he is able to be both very precise and entertaining at the same time.

http://www.harcourtbooks.com/authorinterviews/bookinterview_Damasio.asp

Marvelous book!