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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here's a Saturday afternoon lexicographical
digression. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Fritz's thought-provoking question and the equally thought-provoking
replies from Thapelo and others prompts me to mention some work
I'm just starting on natural-kind terms in English and other European
languages. I'd welcome comments and feedback. </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Terms denoting classes of flora and fauna can, I think,
usefully be divided into "natural" and "unnatural" terms, though of course,
as always, the boundaries are not clear-cut. Natural terms are central to
the language, have fuzzy definition boundaries, and are often exploited to make
new meanings, metaphors, and other creative lexical uses. Unnatural terms
have stipulative definitions with sharp boundaries. They are
usually of quite recent origin (sometimes as a specialization of a pre-existing
natural term).</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Some
examples:</FONT> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><EM><STRONG>Mammal</STRONG></EM> is an example of an unnatural
term. It was coined in 1826 as a derivative of the 18th-century New
Latin term <EM>Mammalia</EM> 'having mammae' (milk-secreting breasts) --
a direct result of natural scientists' dissatisfaction with the
fuzzy boundaries of natural terms such as <STRONG><EM>animal</EM></STRONG> and
<EM><STRONG>beast</STRONG></EM>. As zoology advanced, scientists
seized on the common feature of breast-feeding to create a term for all
only those animals that breast-feed their young. The term has done wonderful
service in the sciences since then, receiving only an occasional jolt from
discoveries such as the <EM><STRONG>platypus</STRONG></EM>, an egg-laying mammal
-- a remarkable boundary case. But let no one think
that <EM><STRONG>mammal</STRONG></EM> is a natural word of English. It
isn't. It is a term of art. "I was walking through the woods the other day when
I saw a mammal" would not be a natural sentence of English. "Mammal"
is not normally exploited in metaphors and similes. </DIV>
<DIV>I am delighted to hear that Setswana does not have a term for
'mammal'. Setswana would seem to be a more natural language than
English. </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Modern English<EM><STRONG> animal,</STRONG></EM> on the other
hand, is an example of a natural term. Its central membership is
clear, but its boundaries in ordinary usage are much vaguer. </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> -- Is a <EM><STRONG>lizard</STRONG></EM> an
animal? My intuition (!) is that many English speakers would say
yes.</DIV>
<DIV> -- Is a <EM><STRONG>bird</STRONG></EM> an animal? My
intuition is that many English speakers would say no, </DIV>
<DIV> probably after
some hesitation. (Birds are, of course, members of the </DIV>
<DIV> animal kingdom,
but that's different: <EM><STRONG>Animal kingdom</STRONG></EM> is itself an
unnatural </DIV>
<DIV>
term.)</DIV>
<DIV> -- Is a <EM><STRONG>fish</STRONG></EM> an
animal? Not in ordinary everyday English. </DIV>
<DIV> -- Is a <STRONG><EM>spider</EM></STRONG> an
animal?</DIV>
<DIV> -- What about<EM><STRONG> insects</STRONG></EM>? (and
are <STRONG><EM>butterflies</EM></STRONG> insects?)</DIV>
<DIV> Etc.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Paradoxically enough, in the 14th-16th
centuries <EM><STRONG>animal</STRONG></EM> was brought into English as
a learned term, a Latinate, unnatural alternative to the then current term,
<STRONG><EM>beast</EM></STRONG>. A 16th-century
classification, in Gilles Du Wes's 1532 "Introductorie for to lerne
to rede, to pronounce and to speke French trewly", classifies the animal
kingdom into "beestes, byrdes, fyshes, reptyll". Insects were,
apparently, beneath notice.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Modern English words like <EM><STRONG>horse, dog, fox, cat, mouse, rat,
snake</STRONG></EM> are natural terms. They may or may not pick out sets
of creatures coextensive with equivalent scientific unnatural terms
(<EM><STRONG>equine, canine, feline, rodent</STRONG></EM>), but they are also
widely used in similes, metaphors, and other exploitations. This alone is
a good reason for categorizing them as natural terms. </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>There is a fascinating interplay between natural and unnatural terms, also
between natural and unnatural meanings of the same terms. One
example:</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><EM><STRONG>Reptile</STRONG></EM> (in modern English) has
become an 'unnatural' term in its central uses. Originally a natural
term denoting anything that creeps (including earthworms, for example), also
an adjective meaning creepy-crawly, it was specialized in the 19th century
by zoologists to denote all and only members of the zoological class
<EM>Reptilia</EM>, even those that don't creep or crawl (e.g. flying lizards).
But meanwhile, it also developed a conventional figurative meaning -- "a person
of a low, mean, grovelling, or repulsive character" (OED) -- very
natural!</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Natural and unnatural terms generally coexist peacefully, and sometimes
interact semantically, in most if not all European languages, but they
fulfil different functions. Unnatural terms are necessary for scientific
precision, and since English is the international language of science,
it necessarily has a large vocabulary of unnatural terms. Natural
terms are necessary for saying new things and for creative and imaginative
speaking and writing and to anbale people to use language at a normal speed in
everyday discourse without agonizing unduly over precision. </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>I use the term "unnatural" not only because it contrasts neatly with
"natural", but also because its rather negative connotations are a salutary
reminder of how the supremacy of scientism and logicism have distorted
our understanding of the variability and vagueness that are essential
features of natural languages. I have nothing against scientific research
-- of course not! -- but I question the assumption, often made in Europe and
America, that the artificial terminology that is necessary for
precision in the natural sciences represents an "improved" form of
natural language. To think this is to underestimate the creativity of
lexical semantics: existing words, especially natural terms, are constantly used
in new ways.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Patrick Hanks</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>-----
Original Message ----- </FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3><B>From:</B> </FONT></FONT><A
title=thaps@yahoo.com href="mailto:thaps@yahoo.com"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>Thapelo Otlogetswe</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
size=3><B>To:</B> </FONT></FONT><A title=lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com</FONT></A><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
size=3><B>Sent:</B> Friday, August 13, 2004 10:15 AM</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
size=3><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Lexicog] What is a bat?</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Never thought seriously about a bat name in Setswana until now - we call
it mmamathwane [a feminine name, because of the mma- prefix meaning 'mother
of' or just 'mother']. Why the feminine name I cannot say. It would appear
'mathwane' is onomatopoeic to the sound the bats produce and it is
possibly derived from the verb 'go thwanya' - describing a cracking kind of
sound. I imagine many people in Botswana would see a bat as a bird mainly
because it flies - it would be a bird that suckles its young [for those who
know it does!]. We do not have a word for 'mammals' in the language &
therefore such a classification may only be an academic one not salient to the
mother tongue speakers. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><B><I>Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling@sil.org></I></B>
wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">In
Noah J. Jabobs' amusing "Naming Day in Eden" (The MacMillan
Company<BR>Collier-MacMillan Ltd., London 1958), p. 16, I found the
following<BR>interesting quote on how the bat is named in different
languages:<BR><BR>"...how did Adam name the bat? Which characteristic
impressed him at<BR>the moment of naming? Did its blindness move him to call
it<BR>'murciélago'(Spanish), its baldness 'chauve-souris'(French),
its<BR>shyness 'pipistrello'(Italian), its leathery skin
'Läderlapp'(Swedish)<BR>or 'böregér'(Hungarian from 'bör,' leather; 'egér,'
mouse), its<BR>preference for the night 'nukteris'(Greek), its resemblance
to the<BR>mouse 'Fledermaus'(German) or 'letutsaya mysh'(Russian), the sound
of<BR>its flapping wings 'watwat'(Arabic), its winglike hands
'chiroptera'<BR>(Greek 'chir,' hand, plus 'pteron,' wing), its resemblance
to a lily(!)<BR>'liliac'(Rumanian), its reputed love of bacon 'bat' (Old
English<BR>'backe,' bacon)? The Chinese have conferred a number of
laudatory<BR>names on this mouse-like mammal, such as 'embracing wings,
heavenly<BR>rat, fairy rat, night swallow,' and use it as a symbol of
happiness<BR>and long life because its name 'fu' in Chinese happens to be
a<BR>homonym which means both 'bat'and 'prosperity.'"<BR><BR>I have found
African stories about the bat being sad because it does<BR>not know where it
belongs.<BR>How do you name the bat in your language? And where would you
put it<BR>in a domain dictionary?<BR><BR>Fritz
Goerling<BR>---<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#00007f><STRONG>Thapelo Otlogetswe <BR></STRONG></FONT><FONT
color=#00007f>Information Technology Research Institute</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#00007f>University of Brighton </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#00007f>Lewes Road, Brighton <BR>BN2 4GJ,
<STRONG>England</STRONG> <BR></FONT><FONT color=#444f75>Tel: (+44) 1273 642912
(office) <BR><FONT
color=#00007f> </FONT>(+44) 1273 642908
(fax) <BR></FONT><FONT
color=#ff0000>http://www.itri.brighton.ac.uk/~Thapelo.Otlogetswe/</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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