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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@hidden.email
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