100
term ‘binomial’ will be used in the remainder of the paper, i.e. at the ‘ generic ’ level,
sensu [ 9 ]. The second type of phenomenon is the more familiar situation where a
member of a generic class (a specifi c taxon, to use Berlin ’s terminology) incorpo-
rates within its name the label for that class as a whole. A Solega example from our
data is elesiṭṭe ‘ tailorbird ’, which is placed within the superordinate category siṭṭe
‘small passerines ’.
4.3.1 Acceptability Judgements
Based on the initial acceptability judgements of the fi eld assistants, it was found that
only a handful of birds are named with obligate binomial lexemes, where -(h)akki is
an inalienable part of the name (Table 4.1 ). An intermediate number of birds are
named by optional binomials , where the -(h)akki can be used or dropped, at the
speaker’s volition. The majority of bird name s are obligate mononomials , where the
addition of –(h)akki is not allowed. A cursory scan of Table 3.1 might appear to
confi rm some ‘universals’ of ethnoclassifi cation proposed by Berlin [ 9 ]. These
include (1) the dominance of mononomials among what Berlin calls generic taxa,
(2) a tendency for ‘perceptually salient’ organisms and monotypic genera to be
preferentially named, and (3) a systematic overlap between ‘folk’ and ‘scientifi c’
taxa, especially at the level of the folk genus.
The fi rst of these generalisations is the most readily supported by our data.
Overall, a majority of bird name s (35 out of 55, or 64 %) are obligate mononomials.
However, the use of the 16 (29 %) ‘optional’ species names in their full, binomial
forms is by no means marginal—the linguistic context plays a crucial role here.
When asked “What bird is that?” a Solega person might give the following reply:
(1) adu e:va hakki?
that which bird
‘What bird is that?’
(2) adu ondu sore
that one dove
“That’s a dove.”
However, if the same speaker intended to draw a listener’s attention to the pres-
ence of a particular bird, s/he might spontaneously say the following:
(3) no:ḍ-u alli ondu sore-yakki ku:t-ide
look-IMP—there one dove-bird sit-PERF
“Look, there’s a dove sitting there.”
When asked, Solega speakers will undoubtedly say that it is acceptable to omit
–(y)akki from sentence (3), but the majority of their spontaneous utterances contain
the superordinate taxon. This has important implications for the way in which data
are collected in ethnobiological studies. Traditional question and answer sessions
where a researcher repeatedly asks a consultant to name dead or living specimens,