[Lexicog] indigenous lexical relations

[Mike Maxwell]

'Lou Hohulin' wrote:
> ...palms (coconut, betelnut)are not classified as
> trees because they cannot be used for firewood though they are
> functionally useful in other ways.

This reminds me, there is a very extensive literature (which I claim no
familiarity with) on ethnobotany, kinship systems, and other ethnic
classification systems.  (I've often wondered how ethnic groups classify
rocks--I would bet some pre-contact peoples had a classification system,
most of which has probably since been lost.)  Most of this literature has, I
believe, been produced by anthropologists.

    Mike Maxwell
    Linguistic Data Consortium
    maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu




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