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<div dir="ltr">I have questioned another super small sample of Scandinavian speakers:</div>
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<div dir="ltr">Question: Are birds and insects animals?</div>
<div dir="ltr">Swedish (age 10): birds yes, insects no.</div>
<div dir="ltr">Norwegian (age 8): birds don’t know, insects no.</div>
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<div dir="ltr">Östen </div>
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13 okt. 2018 kl. 20:17 skrev David Gil <<a href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>>:<br>
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<p>So from the comments by Hartmut (below) and Östen a short while ago, it is becoming clear that I was a little cavalier in my initial statement to the effect than English "animal" refers to 1-7 and maybe 8. Interestingly, though, German "Tier" apparently
does. Also, there may possibly be a split between Hartmut's Danish "dyr" (1-7) and Östen's Swedish "djur" (1 only) — though I now see some further discussion that calls this into question.</p>
<p>The observations that have been offered about the semantic range of English "animal" have already provided me with a solution to the problem that motivated my original posting. Under the (apparently) false assumption that English has a single word for 1-7/8,
it was a problem for the proposed notion of higher animal (covering 1-4/5) that there seemed to be no simple word for it. But if indeed ontological categories such as living creature (covering 1-7/8) can exist without a simple word to designate them, then
it is not a problem for the proposed notion of higher animal that there would seem not to be a single word for that category — at least from what I have been able to gather so far.</p>
<p>Still, it would be nice if somebody came through with a language that had a simple basic word for higher animals (1-4/5), so I welcome further comments and discussion on this thread!<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 13/10/2018 20:00, Hartmut Haberland wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:5DEB9A15-C173-49C5-A924-9C52B6D1AE02@ruc.dk">
<div dir="ltr">Three comments:</div>
<div dir="ltr">In German, 1.-7. would work. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Where are fish like plaice, turbot, or eel? Category 2a?</div>
<div dir="ltr">My wife, L1 speaker of English, often commented on my typical German concept of Tier (1.-7.), when I referred to birds, fish and insects as animals which I stopped doing now. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Turbots have more axes of symmetry than anyone who ever filleted one for sushi will agree with me are convenient. </div>
<div dir="ltr">In my opinion, the cut-off point for English is after 1.</div>
<div dir="ltr">I use Danish dyr like German Tier and nobody ever commented on it in 40+ years. </div>
<div dir="ltr">What about bacteria (6a)? At least they move. </div>
<div dir="ltr">Hartmut</div>
<div dir="ltr">Den 13. okt. 2018 kl. 18.35 skrev David Gil <<a href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de" moz-do-not-send="true">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>>:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">Dear all,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">I am interested in exploring, cross-linguistically, the semantic range of words that correspond more or less to the English word "animal".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">Here are examples of the things that English "animal" refers to:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">1. dog, kangaroo, lizard, frog ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">2. eagle, sparrow, chicken, bat ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">3. bee, scorpion, spider, centipede ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">4. crab, shrimp ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">5. worm, leech ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">6. starfish, jellyfish, squid, octopus ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">7. oyster, clam ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">8. sponge (?) ...<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">I am looking for examples of languages in which the basic word closest to English "animal" is nevertheless different in its coverage.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>In particular, I would like to find instances — if such exist — of languages in which there is a basic word that covers the examples in 1-4 (or maybe 1-5) to the exclusion of those in 5-8 (or maybe 6-8).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(Note that the question concerns every-day words that reflect our naive folk biological knowledge, not with scientific terms in those few languages that have such terminology.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">Some words of background:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>A colleague and I working in experimental cognitive science have found (non-linguistic) empirical evidence for the psychological reality of an ontological category that consists roughly of animals of the kind exemplified in 1-4 (and possibly also 5).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>We are calling this category "higher animals".<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>The characteristic prototypical features of higher animals include a single axis of symmetry, the existence of head, torso and limbs, a face in the front of the head that includes sensory organs such as eyes, and a mouth for eating, and the ability to
move forward in the direction that the head is facing. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>A challenge that we face is that, in the (few) languages that we are familiar with, there is no simple word for higher animals.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>But we are hoping that other languages might have such a word.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>in addition, we would also welcome grammatical evidence for the category of higher animals, for example in the form of grammatical rules that are sensitive to the animacy hierarchy by making reference to a cut-off point between higher and other animals.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">I look forward to your responses.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>Thanks,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">David</span></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de" moz-do-not-send="true">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816
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