Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 05:42:07 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712091042.FAA15245@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Robin Turner Sender: Lojban list From: Robin Turner Subject: Re: cold logic X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1854 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Dec 9 05:42:08 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Chris wrote: >As to why we use warm and cold for the associated emotional attitudes; I = >bet if they use temperature metaphors in equatorial countries for warm = >and cold emotions, that they use the same ones as in colder countries. = >What we call emotional warmth is probably universally associated in one = >way or another with physical contact, which really is warm. > Of course - I really should have thought of that one. What had been going through my mind prior to writing about the cold/hot schema was the way Muslims see Heaven as cool - I once had an argument with one of my more religious relatives where I used this as evidence that the Koran was not universal, since for us Nordic types, it used to be Hell that was chilly. Anyway, this confirms my suspicion that with "emotional warmth" are dealing with an image-schema (which is rooted in universal psycho-physical experience) rather than a more culture-specific metaphor. As far as I know, the Lakoff-Johnson model does not overtly distinguish between metaphors such as EMOTIONS ARE WARM, which follow more-or-less automatically from image-schematic universals, and those which have culture-specific preconditions, such as TIME IS MONEY (obviously meaningless in a culture which does not have money). I love the "warmly logical" examples. Can't see them catching on, but why not use them annyway? As I said, they have shock value. I find solving something using logic (e.g. the "flowers" translation I attempted) gives me a feeling that is anything but "cold". Puts me in mind of a scene in Star Trek when someone asked Mr Spock if he ever felt happy. His reply was, I think, "I sometimes feel a certain sense of satisfaction after solving a difficult logical problem." Robin Turner Bilkent Universitesi, IDMYO, Ankara, Turkey.