Doug Jones: My Handaxe���Noted

Doug Jones: My Handaxe https://logarithmichistory.wordpress.com/2019/06/16/my-handaxe-4/: ���Possession is a social relationship.... Robinson Crusoe didn���t 'own' anything on his island before Friday came along. Linguists have noted something interesting about the language of possession.... Compare... Jo��o��went��to Recife. Chico��stayed��in Rio. The gang��kept��Zezinho in Salvador.... The Crampden estate��went��to Reginald. The Hampden estate��stayed��with Lionel. Thag��kept��axe. Of course the Crampden estate didn���t��go��anywhere in physical space, but it still traveled in the abstract social space of possession.... The Russian preposition��y��means at/near when applied to a place (People are at Nevsky street) but possession when applied to a person (Hat is 'at' Ivan = Ivan has hat.) What may be going on here... mental machinery for thinking about physical space... gets retooled/borrowed/exapted for thinking about more abstract relationships... close and distant social relationships... time ahead and behind��� #noted #2020-06-20