The fourth dimension - a personal note on Landau's "December Paper"

Abstract

My "note" is closely related to David Landau''s paper on the names of the months linguistically corresponding to "December" (this volume). It considers the onomastic status of time phrases by investigating the concepts of time and space in their interrelation. The contribution supplies reasoning that proves the existence of time as a fourth spatial dimension. Therefore the general statement that reality exists in space and time must be qualified. If time is a fourth spatial dimension, then the month‘s name “December” can be compared with a place name like "Leipzig". I suggest that there is no dichotomy between describing "Leipzig" as an onym, but "December" as an appellative only. "Leipzig" and "December" enjoy a familiar onomastic partnership.