[Ads-l] The Duck Test

[Laurence Horn]

Later jokes of this kind would morph into punchlines of the form “A dog. I lied about the quacking."

> On Feb 21, 2024, at 5:55 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Interesting match, Stephen.
> Below is the most entertaining match I found while searching for
> "quacks like a duck". This citation is definitely not an example of
> the duck test, but it does nicely illustrate the logic of a child.
> 
> Date: April 9, 1919
> Periodical: The Aeroplane
> Page Title: The World of Aeronautics
> Article: The Bolo Riddle
> Publisher: General Publishing Company, London
> Quote Page 1434
> https://archive.org/details/aeroplane161919lond/page/1434/mode/1up?q=quacks
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> . . . one is reminded of the child who asked the riddle: "What animal
> is it that has fur, four legs, and that quacks like a duck?" As no one
> could guess, the youthful interrogator gleefully said the answer was
> "a dog," and, when it was objected that a dog rarely quacked,
> remarked, with maddening placidity, that the quack had been put in to
> make the riddle more difficult.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Garson
> 
> On Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 5:19 PM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Maybe, or maybe not, a good example of the duck test.
>> Maybe, or maybe not, a cousin of "tastes like chicken."
>> 
>> Weat Virginia Wild Life,  XI 5-6. May-June, 1933, page 7/2:
>> 
>> The frog more nearly resembles a duck, he swims and dives like a duck, his feet are webbed like ducks, he lives along the water like a duck,  he quacks like a duck, and when eaten tastes like a duck, (maybe).
>> 
>> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015084405995&seq=475
>> 
>> sg
>> ________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Baker, John <000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 9:01 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Subject: The Duck Test
>> 
>> There is a famous functional test, frequently used in legal reasoning and political rhetoric, for determining how something should be treated.  One formulation is "When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."  This version is attributed to James Whitcomb Riley (1849 - 1916), the "Hoosier poet," who was once enormously popular and is still read today, although I cannot seem to find it in his works (which, however, I have not searched in full).
>> 
>> Wikipedia suggests a different, later origin, https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test__;!!OToaGQ!suZLx32tMZwkPy_OWlUOgIBfusOc98E_RSOcZbwUDZA1Ww-4J3IPGRZq0UMceLTmcCTLZ5Y-wQTxJ6KcCFgT9c5a4gcBVF-Frdc$ .  Emil Mazey, secretary-treasurer of the United Auto Workers, at a labor meeting in 1946 accused a person of being a communist:  "I can't prove you are a Communist. But when I see a bird that quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, has feathers and webbed feet and associates with ducks-I'm certainly going to assume that he is a duck."  Can this be antedated?
>> 
>> I might mention in passing that, as a guide to ornithology, the duck test is quintessentially unreliable.  As a practical approach to considering legal consequences, however, this functional test is well-regarded.
>> 
>> 
>> John Baker
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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