Is this proper use of the word "respect"?

[MrPedantic]

[Molly]

[MrPedantic]

In other words, if you were of Nigerian ancestry, and had not been born in the USA, it would be unlikely that your ancestors had been taken to the USA.

How was Angwe affected by the slave trade, out of interest?

MrP

[Molly]

Would you like to make a thread of your own to discuss the history of the slave trade and Africa?

The question for this thread is above. Haven't seen you respond to it as yet.

[MrPedantic]

It seems a little odd to disown your own subject:

[Molly]

The subject was being used for a specific point. If you can tell me what your questions have to do with the use of sympathy, empathy, respect, compassion, etc., we can go on.

And, as you seem to be so continually interested in my life, background, language and langauge use, colour, gender, etc., why not set up a thread about it?

[bayman]

Yeah, then maybe we can get back to whether a person can kill a fish out of "respect".....and whether that's a correct choice words.....not necessarily THE correct word choice; rather simply A correct choice.

[Molly]

[Jamie (K)]

Okay. Here's the synopsis, Bayman. Only two native speakers have answered you, me and MrPedantic. I'm the only one who actually went about answering your question. Molly is not a native speaker of English, or at least claims not to be. (There is conjecture among some here that "she" is actually a British man posing as a Nigerian woman, but of course, we can't know that for sure, so we have to take "her" word for it that "she" is a non-native speaker of English.)

So here is the synopsis from the only native English speaker (a linguist with a graduate degree) who has answered your question:

If you go according to one of the definitions of "respect" in the Oxford American Dictionary ("due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others"), then we can say that we kill a fish out of respect, because you're doing it out of due regard for its feelings. However, I don't find this definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the American Heritage dictionary or any other English dictionary, including the Oxford tome of British English that I have. So it's a little iffy.

If you don't want to choose a still iffy usage of a word, then it's better to say you kill the fish immediately out of "compassion" or "mercy".

The option "empathy" that was given is not good, because empathy implies that one knows what the fish feels like, and no human knows the feeling of being yanked out of water by a hook in the mouth and being unable to breathe in open air instead of in water. You can use "sympathy", though.

So there's the general rundown.

[MrPedantic]

[Molly]

(There is conjecture among some here that "she" is actually a British man posing as a Nigerian woman, but of course, we can't know that for sure, so we have to take "her" word for it that "she" is a non-native speaker of English.)

I see you too have gone "Baa-baa!" and followed Mr P-astor.

[Molly]

So here is the synopsis from the only native English speaker (a linguist with a graduate degree) who has answered your question:

So it's the linguists we have to believe in, right?

[Molly]

[Molly]

Hey, Jamie, all, do you think animals have the cognitive capacity to put themselves in our place?

[MrPedantic]