Folk Zoological Life‐Forms: Their Universality and Growth

Folk zoological life-form terms, like folk botanical life-form terms (Brown 1977a), are added to languages in a highly regular manner. Life-forms of the triad FISH, BIRD, and SNAKE are lexically encoded first, although in no particular order, followed by WUG (e.g., American English hug) and then MAMMAL. Four general principles of naming-behavior underlie these regularities: (1) criteria clustering; (2) conjunctivity (including binary opposition); (3) dimension salience; and (4) marking. In addition, size of folk zoological life-form vocabularies is positively correlated with societal complexity. This is caused by the decay of folk biological taxonomies as societies become more complex. [cognitive anthropology, ethnobiology, folk classification, language universals, language change]

[1]  James Owen Dorsey,et al.  A dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo languages, accompanied with thirty-one Biloxi texts and numerous Biloxi phrases , 1912 .

[2]  A Galla-English, English-Galla Dictionary , 1913, Nature.

[3]  Cyrus Byington,et al.  A Dictionary of the Choctaw Language , 1915 .

[4]  AFRICA: Anthropological Report on Ibo‐Speaking Peoples of Nigeria. Part IV. Law and Custom of the Ibo of the Asaba District, S. Nigeria. Part V. Addenda to Ibo‐English Dictionary. Part VI. Proverbs, Stories, Tones in Ibo. Northcote W. Thomas , 1915 .

[5]  F. L. Flesche.  A Dictionary of the Osage Language , 1921 .

[6]  P. Dinneen.  An Irish-English Dictionary , 2010 .

[7]  John P. Harrington,et al.  Vocabulary Of The Kiowa Language , 1928 .

[8]  John R. Swanton,et al.  A dictionary of the Atakapa language accompanied by text material , 1932 .

[9]  Diedrich Westermann,et al.  A Hausa-English dictionary and English-Hausa vocabulary , 1934, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

[10]  Ethnobotany of the Hopi. Alfred F. Whiting. (Museum of Northern Arizona, Bulletin 15. Flagstaff, Arizona. June, 1939.) , 1941, American Antiquity.

[11]  English-Armenian and Armenian-English concise dictionary , 1944 .

[12]  Carl Darling Buck.  A dictionary of selected synonyms in the principal Indo-European languages , 1949 .

[13]  An English-Turkish dictionary , 1952 .

[14]  Yuen Ren Chao.  Popular Chinese Plant Words a Descriptive Lexico-Grammatical Study , 1953 .

[15]  Langenscheidt's German-English, English-German dictionary , 1953 .

[16]  Ambalaṅgoḍa Polvattē Buddhadatta.  English­Pali Dictionary , 1955 .

[17]  Raoul Naroll,et al.  A Preliminary Index of Social Development , 1956 .

[18]  J. Bruner,et al.  A study of thinking , 1956 .

[19]  An English Albanian Dictionary , 1957 .

[20]  C. Doke,et al.  English-Zulu dictionary , 1958 .

[21]  Mary Kawena Pukui,et al.  Hawaiian-English dictionary , 1958 .

[22]  Tomás De Bhaldraithe.  English-Irish dictionary , 1959 .

[23]  The Kosciuszko Foundation Dictionary, English-Polish Polish-English. Vol. I. English-Polish , 1960 .

[24]  Notes On Some Animals In Zandeland , 1963 .

[25]  W. Shipley.  Maidu texts and dictionary , 1963 .

[26]  93. Some Kaguru Plants: Terms, Names and Uses , 1964 .

[27]  Vocabulario mixe de Totontepec : mixe-castellano, castellano-mixe , 1965 .

[28]  J. O. Sawyer.  English-Wappo Vocabulary , 1965 .

[29]  A. Dyk,et al.  Vocabulario mixteco de San Miguel el Grande , 1965 .

[30]  C. Callaghan.  Lake Miwok Dictionary , 1965 .

[31]  Vocabulario aguaruna de Amazonas , 1966 .

[32]  English-Maori Dictionary , 1966 .

[33]  Inflectional Class and Taxonomic Structure in Zuni , 1966, International Journal of American Linguistics.

[34]  J. Diamond.  Zoological Classification System of a Primitive People , 1966, Science.

[35]  Howard P. McKaughan,et al.  A Maranao dictionary , 1967 .

[36]  C. Fowler,et al.  Some Northern Paiute Native Categories , 1967 .

[37]  A. Kimball Romney,et al.  SIBLING TERMINOLOGY AND CROSS-SEX BEHAVIOR. , 1967 .

[38]  Peter H. Raven,et al.  Covert Categories and Folk Taxonomies , 1968 .

[39]  Igbo : a learner's dictionary , 1968 .

[40]  R. Clignet,et al.  Comparative sociology : a codification of cross-societal analysis , 1968 .

[41]  P. Kay.  Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution , 1969 .

[42]  S. Tambiah.  Animals Are Good to Think and Good to Prohibit , 1969 .

[43]  Gordon Innes,et al.  A Mende-English Dictionary , 1969 .

[44]  R. M. Nance.  A Cornish-English dictionary , 1969 .

[45]  Morris Swadesh.  Elementos del tarasco antiguo , 1969 .

[46]  J. M. Schaefer.  A Comparison of Three Measures of Social Complexity1 , 1969 .

[47]  English-Congo and Congo-English dictionary , 1971 .

[48]  Dictionary: Chontal to Spanish-English, Spanish to Chontal , 1971 .

[49]  Malcolm W. Mintz.  Bikol Dictionary. PALI Language Texts: Philippines. , 1971 .

[50]  Vocabulario huitoto muìnáne , 1971 .

[51]  Stuart A. Schlegel.  Tiruray-English lexicon , 1971 .

[52]  W. R. Miller.  Newe Natekwinappeh Shoshoni Stories and Dictionary , 1972 .

[53]  A preliminary vocabulary of tifal with grammar notes , 1972 .

[54]  D. E. Breedlove,et al.  General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology , 1973 .

[55]  The “Logical Sloppiness” of Language: A Reply to Jane H. Hill , 1973 .

[56]  Cecil H. Brown.  Unique Beginners and Covert Categories in Folk Biological Taxonomies , 1974 .

[57]  Dennis E. Breedlove,et al.  Principles of Tzeltal Plant Classification: An Introduction to the Botanical Ethnography of a Mayan-Speaking, People of Highland, Chiapas , 1974 .

[58]  R. Bulmer.  Folk biology in the New Guinea Highlands , 1974 .

[59]  Cecil H. Brown.  psychological, semantic, and structural aspects of American English kinship terms1 , 1974 .

[60]  David B. Kronenfeld,et al.  sibling typology: beyond Nerlove and Romney1 , 1974 .

[61]  THE TENEJAPA TZELTAL VERSION OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM , 1975 .

[62]  English-Kikuyu dictionary , 1975 .

[63]  Berard Haile.  A stem vocabulary of the Navaho language , 1975 .

[64]  J. Miller.  Delaware Alternative Classifications. , 1975 .

[65]  R. Laughlin.  The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantan. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, No. 19. , 1975 .

[66]  T. E. Hays.  an empirical method for the identification of covert categories in ethnobiology1 , 1976 .

[67]  Cecil H. Brown,et al.  some general principles of biological and non‐biological folk classification1 , 1976 .

[68]  T. E. Hays.  General, Applied, and Theoretical: Principles of Tzeltal Plant Classification: An Introduction to the Botanical Ethnography of a Mayan‐Speaking People of Highland Chiapas. Brent Berlin, Dennis E. Breedlove, and Peter H. Raven , 1976 .

[69]  Whither the Savage Mind? Notes on the Natural Taxonomies of a Hunting and Gathering People , 1976 .

[70]  Cecil H. Brown.  general principles of human anatomical partonomy and speculations on the growth of partonomic nomenclature1 , 1976 .

[71]  Robert A. Randal.  how tall is a taxonomic tree? some evidence for dwarfism1 , 1976 .

[72]  W. R. Miller,et al.  ‘eagle’=‘bird’: a note on the structure and evolution of Shoshoni ethnoornithological nomenclature1 , 1976 .

[73]  Joseph M. Williams.  Synaesthetic Adjectives: A Possible Law of Semantic Change , 1976 .

[74]  E. Hunn.  toward a perceptual model of folk biological classification1 , 1976 .

[75]  C. F. Voegelin,et al.  Classification And Index Of The World's Languages , 1978 .

[76]  Yapese-English dictionary , 1977 .

[77]  Cecil H. Brown,et al.  An Explanation of Color Nomenclature Universale , 1977 .

[78]  Palauan-English dictionary , 1977 .

[79]  Takaji Abo,et al.  Marshallese-English Dictionary , 1977 .

[80]  Concise Amharic dictionary : Amharic-English, English-Amharic , 1978 .

[81]  Janet W. D. Dougherty,et al.  Salience and relativity in classification , 1978 .

[82]  Cecil H. Brown,et al.  Mesoamerican: A Proposed Language Phylum , 1978 .

[83]  E. Hunn,et al.  Tzeltal folk zoology : the classification of discontinuities in nature , 1979 .