[Lexicog] Re: lexical entries as singulars or plurals

[billposer at ALUM.MIT.EDU]

The Japanese catfish (Silurus asotus) lives in freshwater.
Does living in salt water make Texas catfish taste bad?
Some Japanese people with whom I have discussed this said
that catfish are disgusting because they are bottom-feeders.
I doubt that this can be the real explanation, though, since
other bottom-feeders are widely appreciated, such as eels.

In some parts of Japan there are legends that purport
to explain why people don't eat catfish. The legends
vary from place to place. One of them is about how
a catfish sacrificed itself and ate a giant snake (which
caused it to die) in order to protect villagers on whom
the snake preyed. Another is about how the catfish-god
was angered when another god drained a swamp to create good
land for growing rice. To appease him, the other god prayed
to him, and ever since the people of that area have honored
the catfish.

Bill

--
Bill Poser, Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wjposer/ billposer at alum.mit.edu


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