<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Hi David,<div>The categories as you have them (1-8) reflect certain cultural conceptions, and so won’t be the same for other cultures. For example, in Chinese bats were traditionally seen as flying mice, and lizards were seen as four-legged snakes. </div><div>The word in Chinese that we translate as ‘animal’ is <i>dòngwù</i> (動物), ‘moving thing’. </div><div><br></div><div>Randy<br><div id="AppleMailSignature" dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br>On 14 Oct 2018, at 12:33 AM, David Gil <<a href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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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">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816
</pre>
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