In the spirit of uplifting, intellectual posts, and pedantic inquiry (plus felicidal inquisitiveness) I decided to contribute my mite to this thread. (If you look at the bottom right corner, you'll see him sitting there - his name is Dot. Please don't squash him.
)
Am currently reading a book called
As we know it: Coming to terms with an evolved mind by Marek Kohn. One of his main subjects for dicussion is, as in any discussion of the evolution of the human mind, the acquisition and development of language.
During this discussion he suggests that one of the oldest lies of all may well be: "He's behind you."
Apparently chimpanzees use a variant of this. When under threat from a larger chimp, or from a larger force, chimpanzees have been seen to mimic the 'warning' gesture (nervous tension, upright posture, staring in the direction of the predator that has just been spotted) - looking over the shoulders, or behind, the threatening chimpanzees, whose attention is then diverted to look behind them too. So this particular lie is almost certainly pre-linguistic!
This naturally segues into the consideration, as all true English-people know, that the oldest art from of all has to be the Panto.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
