T. Fjeld was wondering about the choice of the expression (“pick” vs. “hunt”)
when it comes to mushrooms. And L. Helm has provided an apt reply. This has no
implicature. Why wouldn’t he provide an apt reply? J. Anyway, it reminded me of
an interest of Helm, and other.
One of Helm’s interests is dogs, and I’m amused that in Italy, to hunt, search,
find, and pick truffles, hogs are no longer legal. But a special dog breed, the
lagotto romagnolo, is used. The dog searches for the truffle, as the dog joins
the truffle hunter. Unlike the hog, who more often than not, would end up
EATING the truffle, the dog doesn’t, and allows the hunter to carefully pick it
(if you allow me the split infinitive).
But my favourite hunting implicature is _cervus_. In all Germanic languages,
the cognate of English ‘deer’ means just ‘animal’ (and more specifically,
non-human animal). In Amsterdam, for example, the zoo is called the ‘deer
garden.’ So ‘how come,’ to use Fjeld’s expression, there has been this usage
narrowing in England? The Griceian. We must imagine someone like Henry VIII,
arriving at the villa in the forest:
i. I brought some good animals.
He meant to say, ‘deer,’ i.e. cervus. I.e. the only ‘animal’ that counted for
the hunterer was the cervus, and ‘deer’ (which originally and perhaps still,
etymologically, means plain “non human animal”), Henry VIII felt like he could
replace (i) by:
ii. I brought some good deer.
And stuff!
Cheers,
Speranza
