Meaning: sing

Illustrative Context

I heard him yesterday. He was singing.

Target Sense

• The most generic verb for sing, in the prototypical sense and context of singing by a (single) person, with the voice, particularly by varying pitch, perceived as musical (and indeed often accompanied by music), and including actual words of speech.
• As a generic term in the basic vocabulary, the same lexeme is in many languages extended also to birds and some animals (e.g. whales). Avoid, however, additional lexemes that are specific to such contexts or senses.
• Enter only the basic generic verb, neutral and of the default register, and avoid additional lexemes of any nature.
  • Avoid terms specific to uses of the voice that are not strictly singing in any of the respects in the prototypical definition above: e.g. where the pitch variation is not primarily melodious and musical but either rhetorical or linguistic (e.g. recite, intone); where the sound produced is seen only as a sound, and does not include actual words of language (e.g. hum); and so on.
  • Avoid terms specific to singing of a group of people such as a choir, and that would not be the default term for a single person singing.
  • Avoid terms specific to a particular form, style and/or purpose of singing (e.g. ritual, religious or magical), such as chant.
  • Avoid terms that include value judgements, e.g. as to how talented, pleasurable, musical the singing may be.
  • Avoid lexemes specific to figurative extensions to noises produced not by people but by machines or even objects, such as crystal.