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Dear David and all,
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<div>Your exploration is very educative. I cannot claim to be able to answer your questions, but here is a take from Kiswahili. In Kiswahili, the categorization is as follows:</div>
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<div>1. <i>Mtu/Watu</i> 'being/s' (Classes 1/2 M/WA) includes human and other animates. They are superordniate terms which subsume (2-3).</div>
<div>2. <i>Mnyama/Wanyama</i> 'animal/s, ±live' (Classes 1/2 M/WA) , (historically undifferentiated as<i> nyama/nyama</i> of classes 9/10, N/N up to ends of the 19th century) which subsume (3), hence hypernym to (3).</div>
<div>3. <i>Mdudu/Wadudu</i> 'insect/s, crawler/s, parasite/s, and others, ±live' (Classes 1/2 M/WA).</div>
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<div>This gives us three generic terms for referring to humans, animal, insects and other species all the way to microbes. (2-3) are co-hyponyms of (1). These are not sharp mutually exclusive categories. Thus, centipede, scorpion, etc. are also types of (3),
and human, and other animals, e.g. hippo, can be described as <i>wadudu</i>, or better still with the augmentative
<i>dudu/madudu</i>, depending on the communication intention of the speaker, e,g, how monstrous they perceive the entity. Returning to your list of words, they would fall under (1-2), but specifically under (2) in everyday usage. For a quick, not too detailed,
discussion, kindly look at chapter 2 of</div>
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<div>Amidu, A. A. (2007). <i>Semantic Assignement Rules in Kiswahili Bantu Classes</i>. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. </div>
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<div>Best wishes,</div>
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<div>Assibi</div>
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<div>On 14. okt. 2018, at 08:11, David Gil <<a href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>></div>
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<p>Randy,</p>
<p>So which of the items in (1-8) are covered by Chinese <i>dòngwù</i> (動物), ‘moving thing’?</p>
<p>David<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 14/10/2018 03:59, Randy LaPolla wrote:<br>
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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>
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<div>Randy<br>
<div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div>
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On 14 Oct 2018, at 12:33 AM, David Gil <<a href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de" moz-do-not-send="true">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>> wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">Dear all,</span></p>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US" lang="EN-US">8. sponge (?) ...<br>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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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