Re: Bootstrapping a cooperative conlang

Stevo wrote:
>A picture only shows what the animal looks like.  It doesn't give any of
>the
>rest of the meaning of the word, like how it moves, what sounds it makes,
>what
>kinds of food it eats, why it's a pest or pet.
_Pest_ can be applied to people too!!

Yes, definitions can get complicated. Does anyone recall Katz and Postal's
attempt at a "generative" definition of "bachelor" (the only one they ever
tried AFAIK)?

Are there different species of mice, as there are of rats, cockroaches et
al? I believe so.

Aside from the animal, and modern computer usage, there's also (not too
current I think) (a)  _a black (bruised) eye__ and (b) 1920-30s (?) slang
"girl-friend (lover, mistress?)" maybe boyfriend too; and IIRC older gay
guys' slang (into the 50s) "trick, pick-up". (Cf. Anita Loos' amusing book,
"A Mouse is Born")-- neither of these senses are in my Shorter OED, though
there is _mouse: a term of endearment_

During Army days in Vietnam (1958) lots of the guys had a [mus]
"(Vietnamese) girlfriend", which I always assumed had to be French
"mousse"-- is that old slang too? Perhaps the source of "mouse" in that
sense????  GIs in WW1/WW2 could have learnt/deformed the word while in
Europe, maybe a spelling pronunciation.

(Is it possible my army buddies were using a Korean/Japanese term??-- many
of the older ones had served there, and they used other Japanese words in
their slang too-- "skosh, chogi, ichiban" etc.)

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