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Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

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The messenger is in Istanbul.The money is Fred's.The light is red.The meeting is at 3:00.Good Ideas 353The metaphor also works in sentences about causing something toremain in a state:The gang kept <strong>the</strong> messenger in Istanbul.Fred kept <strong>the</strong> money.The cop kept <strong>the</strong> light red.Emilio kept <strong>the</strong> meeting on Monday.Why do we make <strong>the</strong>se analogies? It is not just to co-opt words but toco-opt <strong>the</strong>ir inferential machinery. Some deductions that apply to motionand space also apply nicely to possession, circumstances, and time. Thatallows <strong>the</strong> deductive machinery for space to be borrowed for reasoningabout o<strong>the</strong>r subjects. For example, if we know that X went to Y, we caninfer that X was not at Y beforehand but is <strong>the</strong>re now. By analogy, if weknow that a possession goes to a person, we can infer that <strong>the</strong> person didnot own <strong>the</strong> possession beforehand but owns it now. The analogy isclose, though it is never exact: as a messenger travels he occupies aseries of locations between Paris and Istanbul, but as Fred inherits <strong>the</strong>money it does not gradually come into his possession to varying degreesas <strong>the</strong> will is being read; <strong>the</strong> transfer is instantaneous. So <strong>the</strong> concept oflocation must not be allowed to merge with <strong>the</strong> concepts of possession,circumstance, and time, but it can lend <strong>the</strong>m some of its inferentialrules. This sharing is what makes <strong>the</strong> analogies between location ando<strong>the</strong>r concepts good for something, and not just resemblances that catchour eye.The mind couches abstract concepts in concrete terms. It is not onlywords that are borrowed for metaphors, but entire grammatical constructions.The double-object construction—Minnie sent Mary <strong>the</strong> marbles—is dedicated to sentences about giving. But <strong>the</strong> construction can beco-opted for talking about communication:Minnie told Mary a story.Alex asked Annie a question.Carol wrote Connie a letter.

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