Why is it you can get understanding of someone’s face by moving your eyes over it left to right or right to left, but written English is only intelligible read left to right?
In: Other
Because language unfolds over *time*, and the reading direction corresponds to the direction of time. Similarly, you can also only read a comic book in one direction, if you want to understand what happens when.
You can look at a single symbol all at once. You can look at a single face all at once. You can string letters together to encode something happening over time (i.e. spoken language). You can string faces together to encode something happening over time (i.e. an emotion unfolding or changing).
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