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I don't know what species the English-language prototypical bird comes closest to but it certainly is not the sparrow. I would expect a description of a sparrow would typically include a comment to the effect that it is a "little bird". Thus the prototypical bird is larger than a sparrow. Presumably the prototypical bird would be "medium sized". What size that may be, though, escapes me right now.<br><br>--Ken<br><br><b><i>Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling@sil.org></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name="Generator" content="MS Exchange Server version 6.5.7036.0"><title>Prototypical bird</title> <!-- Converted from text/rtf format --> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">With a group of Africans from a number of countries</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">to
whom</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">I am teaching semantics</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"> for a couple of weeks</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">,</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">I tested</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">today</font></span><span lang="en-us"> </span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">what they considered to be</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">a</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">prototypical bird.</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">Two</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">participants</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> </span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">answered</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font
face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">a sparrow</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"> like most Westeners would do</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">. It was</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> </span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">interesting to</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"> hear from those who did not know</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">the sparrow</font></span><span lang="en-us"> </span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">nor choose</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"> it.</font></span><span lang="en-us"></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">One said</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font
face="Arial">little bird from the rain-forest</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">, another</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">one</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">raven</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">, another one</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">hawk.</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">While all fulfilled the criteria</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">for</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font
face="Arial">birdiness</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"> by having a beak,</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">feathers</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">, wings to fly,</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">laying eggs, the reasons for th</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">eir choice were cultural</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">,</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">especially</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">commonness.</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">Of course, bats were not considered</font></span><span lang="en-us"> </span></div> <div
align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">by anyone as a bird,</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">as</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">they are</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">mammal</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">s</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"> and lack most criteria</font></span><span lang="en-us"> </span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">of a</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">bird.</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">One participant said a bat is called in his culture</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"></font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font
face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">who is</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">in no class/category.</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial"> That adds another interesting name to the</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">many very different names for bats in different languages already</font></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">mentioned on this list (under the thread</font></span><span lang="en-us"> <font face="Arial">“</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">What is a bat?</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">”</font></span><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">).</font></span><span lang="en-us"></span></div> <div align="left"><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial">Fritz Goerling</font></span><span
lang="en-us"></span></div> </blockquote><br><p>
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