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"People are generally incapable of abstraction. If you are the "x of y"" -> That's not abstraction, that's metaphor, and people are very capable it. In fact, it
by petervandijck 16y ago
"People are generally incapable of abstraction. If you are the "x of y"" -> That's not abstraction, that's metaphor, and people are very capable it. In fact, it's how we do most of our thinking.
- photon_off 16y agoIs a metaphor not a type of abstraction? At any rate, you're correct, I'm probably not giving people enough credit. I'd say that if you can avoid "X of Y"-isms, you're better off doing so.
- petervandijck 16y agoI'd say the opposite: if you can explain something in terms of "x of y", you probably should. Read George Lakoff's stuff :)