Jellyfish 



GENERAL NAMES AND SPECIAL NAMES 



Starfish 



To class these animals as "fish" is to say that they are alike in some way. But they 

 are alike only in the fact that they all live in water. The first part of each compound 

 name tells us that each of these "fish" differs in some special way from "fish" in general 



glass of milk, one spoon, or one tree may serve as well as another. When 

 we need to distinguish, we usually add something to the class-name: the 

 blue chair, or the tree-with-the-swing. 



We do not make up the names ourselves. We find most names already 

 in use, and accept them without question. The name tree goes with a cer- 

 tain class of objects; the name fish, with another class. 



Assembling and Separating' Sorting is a process of noting difTerences 

 and resemblances at the same time. When we know a considerable num- 

 ber of birds or of flowers, we cannot help seeing that the birds are not all 

 alike, or that the flowers are not all alike. We keep together all "birds", 

 and under the label "flower" we keep together many other kinds of objects. 

 Now we make distinctions among members of each class. 



Next we keep apart those that differ enough to call for distinct names. 

 Ordinarily we use an older class-name for the larger or general group, and 

 then add a special name for the smaller subgroup. In this way we speak of 

 blue-bird, black-bird, snow-bird, and so on; or we speak of apple-tree, pear- 

 tree, or cone-tree. 



^See No. 1, p. 44. 

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