Vocabulary

It needs to be kept in mind that the vocabulary that is routinely used in discussing the origin of birds is based on the dino to bird theory. The vocabulary is not neutral. It assumes the dino to bird theory*.
This makes it tricky to even describe the pterosaur to bird theory. You have to use very qualified expressions, which even then, imply a dino to bird theory.
For example, I often use the phrase "basal paraves". This is intended to mean the long-bony-tailed feathered flying and secondarily flightless creatures. For example, Scansoriopterygidae.
But the category "paraves" is defined WITHIN the dino to bird theory. It assumes the dino to bird theory. So I obviously do not mean to include the baggage that the term "paraves" carries within the dino to bird theory.
For example, I do not mean that basal paraves evolved from dinosaurs and I do not mean to exclude oviraptors from the paraves group.


* for example consider this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraves

Paraves is a branch-based clade defined to include all dinosaurs which are more closely related to birds than to oviraptorosaurs.