"Dog" as Life-Form

The Berlinian framework for analyzing folk biological classification and nomenclature is best understood as a flexible cognitive tool rather than as a rigid structure of universal taxonomic ranks. I analyze vernacular English dog names to show that "dog" may be interpreted both as a folk generic taxon and a life-form taxon depending on the frame of reference. I analyze a sample of ca. 100 named "kinds of dogs" to show that the set of categories so-named exhibit the characteristics considered definitive of life-form taxa by Berlin. I conclude that this result is "an exception that proves the rule," affirming the basic validity of the Berlinian perceptual-taxonomic theory.