Re: Re: The two lo'es (was: essentials of a gadri system)

seqram2 scripsit:

> Instead of saying that Mr. Bird is "sometimes" carnivore and sometimes
> herbivore, sometimes male and sometimes female, it would seem to me
> that what makes for a "prototype" are exactly those characteristics
> which *are* constant across "almost all" instances of the critter. So
> Mr. Bird has no specific size (though its size is limited to between
> an inch or so and 10-odd feet), nor a gender, nor a diet, but does
> have feathers, a beak, two wings, is warm-blooded, etc.

You are talking about lo'e cipni (in the non-Jorge sense of lo'e), which is
indeed "thin" in the sense of having only those properties shared by all,
or at least all typical, birds. Mr. Bird is a different thing: he is the
One Bird of whom all individual birds are avatars. Whether English (or other
SAE languages) take Mr. X or individual Xes to be more important
depends on X: for birds, it's the individual bird most of
the time, but for the _New York Times_ it's Mr. Times that counts, not
a particular copy/individual/avatar.

-- 
John Cowan jcowan-k6JZYsoqQQ8PxK1qzZLvrwC/[email protected] www.reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths
led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen. I am the clue-finder,
the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number. --Bilbo