In North America, we commonly buy gifts for our close friends and associates at Christmas and on birthdays, and anticipate in return that a similar group will send gifts our way at the appropriate times. We can feel it, probably as a slight, when we do not receive a gift from a close friend, and […]
Hurting another person is a very easy thing to do. We often think of “hurt” in terms of the pain induced by bodily injury. This obviously is an important kind of hurt, but we should be careful to construe it rightly. The harm is done to the body, but the hurt is a matter of […]
We are constantly describing. “I’m nervous about the interview” or “He’s such a funny guy” or “You have to pick that up.” Our days are filled up with talking, or listening to others talk or reading what others have written, and all of these activities of language are basically matters of description. In many situations, […]