Optimist: the cup is half full
Pessimist: the cup is half empty
Sign linguist: notes that Auslan, BSL, and ASL all have lexical signs that can tell you if the signer views the cup as half ‘full’ or ‘empty’ but that signers can also use depicting signs to show how much liquid actually is in the cup.
Reposted from Gretchen McCulloch
Optimist: the cup is half full

Pessimist: the cup is half empty

Linguist: quantities are described with regard to a reference state; thus we can efficiently convey whether the cup was more recently full or empty

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