Re: [jboske] so, singulatives...

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

Nick Nicholas scripsit:

> There are in the world five prenrxluxramute (wherever the hell 
> Khlukhramut may be.) Of these 5 people, Abe is 30, Bea is 27, Col is 
> 30, Di is 112, and Eoin is 2.
> 
> How old is lo'e prenrxluxramute?

As old as whichever of these, or whatever imaginary member of the group,
is prototypical. If no member is prototypical, and we cannot imagine a
prototypical member (as, without further information, I certainly cannot),
then the answer is "na'i".

The reason that the prototypical lion (to go back to our prototypical
prototype :-)) has no particular sex is not because the numbers of
male and female lions are equal, but because neither sex serves as a
prototype for the other, neither is exceptional with respect to the other.
The prototypical bee is (neuter) female, but not because most bees are;
rather, because drone and queen bees are exceptional (non-prototypical)
in lots of ways.

> The prototypical bird flies, and it's what we first think of when we 
> think 'bird'; it's probably closer to a sparrow than an albatross. 
> Not necessarily because we've done a statistical sampling, but 
> because most birds we end up seeing are like sparrows. This notion 
> (the notion of a 'basic' exemplar) is as much tied with perception 
> and psychology as any putative objective trends. 

Prototypicality is about perception, but that does not make it subjective.

> spent most of his life as an Ancient Mariner probably thinks 
> 'albatross' first.

Nobody's *born* an Ancient Mariner.

> And yet, I come back to what my forebears have.

"I swear by what my forefathers swore by", a formula for invoking the Old
Gods to witness, but without naming them.

> The prototype in this 
> sense is closer to le'e than lo'e. Very close, in fact, because it 
> singulates out of a psychologically salient subclass of lo'i cipni 
> --- birds of a reasonable size. And le'i cipni is likewise all about 
> a psychologically salient subclass of lo'i cipni --- the ones you 
> want to talk about.

I just don't believe that prototypical bird properties are really cultural.
But I am willing to be convinced otherwise.

> And if you wanted to talk about the prototypical 
> Khlukhramuti, how could you *avoid* ending up with your 
> culture-specific stereotype of them?

With a hearty and resounding "na'i".

-- 
John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com
http://www.reutershealth.com http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Humpty Dump Dublin squeaks through his norse
Humpty Dump Dublin hath a horrible vorse
But for all his kinks English / And his irismanx brogues
Humpty Dump Dublin's grandada of all rogues.
--Cousin James