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As an indexer and copyeditor, I have a professional interest in how classification systems are maintained and how people agree on names (for each other, for categories, and for stray-items-that-aren't-easily-summarized-but-ARE-too-important-not-to-show-up-somewhere-in-the-index [she types, grinning]).
...which means I was captivated by the feature article in issue 22 of Allen Press's FrontMatter newsletter: Taxonomy Goes Digital: Nomenclatural Codes Embrace Online-Only Publication. It discusses some of the ways taxonomic names can be established -- that is, how plants, animals, algae, bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other organisms are formally labeled. (Put another way: if you want your name for a newly discovered or discussable critter to be recognized officially -- the better to talk about it with everyone else -- you have to publish and register the name properly [i.e., blogs and Facebook don't count, and until last year, neither did online-only journals]. Until I read this article, I hadn't given much thought to how the process was regulated, even though I'm excavating terminology wormholes all the time in my line of work. [You say vernacular, I say jargon, let's play rochambeau...])
It mentions the Global Names Architecture project, which it describes as "an attempt to compile information about names and help reconcile two major problems: some species have more than one name, and some names are applied to more than one species." (The GNA website looks fascinating. I am charmed by the parenthetical "the strings that serve as" in the second sentence. Some other week...)
Also on names: over at her blog, Mary lists the women mentioned in 100 Diagrams that Changed the World.
...which means I was captivated by the feature article in issue 22 of Allen Press's FrontMatter newsletter: Taxonomy Goes Digital: Nomenclatural Codes Embrace Online-Only Publication. It discusses some of the ways taxonomic names can be established -- that is, how plants, animals, algae, bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other organisms are formally labeled. (Put another way: if you want your name for a newly discovered or discussable critter to be recognized officially -- the better to talk about it with everyone else -- you have to publish and register the name properly [i.e., blogs and Facebook don't count, and until last year, neither did online-only journals]. Until I read this article, I hadn't given much thought to how the process was regulated, even though I'm excavating terminology wormholes all the time in my line of work. [You say vernacular, I say jargon, let's play rochambeau...])
It mentions the Global Names Architecture project, which it describes as "an attempt to compile information about names and help reconcile two major problems: some species have more than one name, and some names are applied to more than one species." (The GNA website looks fascinating. I am charmed by the parenthetical "the strings that serve as" in the second sentence. Some other week...)
Also on names: over at her blog, Mary lists the women mentioned in 100 Diagrams that Changed the World.
