The point is, Sminky--Sharp's "Killer Definition" is the body of material that he collected. And Child wasn't "wrong"what he collected, he has passed on to us, and what he didn't was left for others or lost-- Every collector knows what they want and what they don't want, and it's helpful for us to define that as much as we can, so we know what they've left for us.

It doesn't really matter what most people think a "folk song" is, because their opinions don't contibute anything to what's available. The opinions that count are those of people who are collecting, recording, publishing, transcribing, performing or otherwise documenting, because they are building the archive--