"Nik": The Mesoamerican Representation of Zero (2021)

Post by bubblyworld » Mon, Jul 15, 2024, 1:58 PM UTC

Kye wrote: post #22

OJFord wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For abstract times gone by though right? I've never heard it used to mean specifically 'last year'. (And in fact typically much more than just one year ago, not including it.)

I stopped making assumptions about what terms people see as abstract and which they see as concrete when I found out not everyone understands a few as three. https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/couple-few-several-u... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37722244

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Mon, Jul 15, 2024, 3:04 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #9

paleotrope wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Ago" is kind of agglutinative. In english it isn't used by itself. It's pretty much a suffix even though by convention it is it's own word.

There are good reasons to think of it as being a word. For example, much like the particle 's , it applies to a phrase without being at all concerned with what word it modifies. (Think "a week and a half ago "; which word would you argue "ago" is being suffixed to?) Does this make it different in any meaningful way from an agglutinative morpheme? No, obviously not. Whether to call a language "agglutinative" is alread…

Post by bryanrasmussen » Mon, Jul 15, 2024, 3:27 PM UTC

NoboruWataya wrote: post #23

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe expressions in this case means words that refer to the concept, they are however wrong because I will be thinking about it in a fortnight.

"In a fortnight" is not a word, obviously we have words that refer to lengths of time greater than two days, but I think the point is that we have no single word to describe the day that is a fortnight from now. One thing I found mildly interesting about the distinction between English and Spanish is that English has "tonight" but no single word for "last night", whereas in Spanish it's the opposite.

Post by hobs » Mon, Jul 15, 2024, 4:23 PM UTC

dtagames wrote: post #32

I always find these articles about highly visual subjects that don't show any images to be a little bit under-researched. The Maya language and numeral system is fascinating in part because of its visual beauty. Maya text and design elements are widely incorporated into architecture and media in the region, even today. This article showed us none of that. Not even a single image of a zero.

Post by linearrust » Mon, Jul 15, 2024, 5:21 PM UTC

paleotrope wrote: post #4

"It is noteworthy to point out that in Spanish or English, there are no expressions of time that go any further than two days into the past or the future;" I'll think about this more next week.