Re: wild, feral, ??, tame, domesticated
| From: | Herman Miller <hmiller@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, September 3, 2003, 1:11 |
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On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 12:31:11 -0600, "Elyse M. Grasso"
<emgrasso@...> wrote:
>I think there is a word missing in the English semantic space that would apply
>to these geese, and the city pigeons and wrens that pick up crumbs underfoot
>and you almost need to be careful not to step on them. Sort of the opposite
>of feral. ("Weeds" or "pests" doesn't quite work, either...)
You know, there's got to be a technical term for that, at least, but I
can't think of one. Surely the Zireen languages have a word for it though.
>Tradespeech has many subtle distinctions in the wild/domesticated semantic
>space. Shayanan interactions with other species on their world are often
>subtler than those of humans (much as interpersonal interactions are more
>likely to involve biochemical seduction than violence).
>
>Imperial tends to have two categories: useful/cooperative, and dead.
Zireen languages definitely need a variety of categories in this area:
wild/domesticated, friendly/hostile, dangerous/harmless, and various
combinations. Since the Zireen don't hunt or trap the local equivalent of
mammals and birds (they eat mainly insects), wild animals aren't as wary of
Zireen as they are of humans and other omnivores. So I imagine there's
quite a few wild animals of different kinds that would seem relatively
"tame" without having been domesticated.
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