🚀 go-pugleaf

>>>>> "John" == John Woodgate <jmw@jmwa.demon.co.uk> writes:

    >> The same set of symbols could also mean:
    >> 
    >> 1) Will you go to the store?  2) Do you own the store?  3) Do
    >> you like the store?  4) Have you ever bought anything from that
    >> store?  5) Do you hate the store?  6) Are you a supplier of
    >> goods to that store?  7) Do you live in that store?  8) Do you
    >> know the store?  ...

    John> But you can write all these in Chinese characters, which
    John> have less information content that colour pictograms could
    John> have. 

The Chinese way of  asking "Did you go to the store?"  is: "Are you in
the state of 'having gone to the store'?"

That's not  just a picture of  "you" and "store" and  an arrow meaning
"go".  Chinese plays a lot with states, or more technically, "temporal
aspect".  Moreover, the verb "go" is much more precise in meaning than
just  an "arrow".   An  "arrow" can  mean  "go", "possess",  "attack",
"like", "hate", "inside", "is a kind of", ...



-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     $(0,X)wAV(B(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 
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