Taxonomic Nomenclature: What’s in a Name – Theory and History

277 Pages·2021·24.703 MB·English

by  Igor Ya. Pavlinov

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Taxonomic Nomenclature
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Taxonomic Nomenclature

What’s in a Name – Theory and History
Igor Ya. Pavlinov
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First edition published 2022
by CRC Press
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and by CRC Press
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© 2022 Igor Ya. Pavlinov
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pavlinov, I. I︠A︡ . (Igorʹ I︠A︡ kovlevich), author.
Title: Taxonomic nomenclature: what’s in a name: theory and history / Igor Ya Pavlinov.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This book a conceptual
examination of the role of nomenclature in systematics. It is not just another
“instruction for use” of the nomenclature codes. The goal is to review theoretical
foundations of taxonomic nomenclature and historical development of its fundamental
regulating features”– Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021023416 | ISBN 9781032015071 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032022437 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003182535 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Biology–Nomenclature. |
Plants–Nomenclature. | Animals–Nomenclature.
Classification: LCC QH83 .P395 2021 | DDC 578.01/2–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023416
ISBN: 978-1-032-01507-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-02243-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-18253-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003182535
Typeset in Times
by Newgen Publishing UK
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Things are so because they are called so.
Chuang- tzu
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Contents
Preface ......................................................................................................................ix
Introduction ...............................................................................................................1
Theoretical Part
Chapter 1 Taxonomic Theory and Nomenclature .................................................7
1.1 The Basics of Taxonomic Theory ..............................................7
1.2 How Does Taxonomic Theory Matter? ....................................11
1.3 Taxonomic Hierarchy: A Case Study .......................................15
Chapter 2 Basic Elements of a Theory of Nomenclature ....................................21
2.1 Basic Thesaurus .......................................................................22
2.1.1 Nomenclature Concepts, Systems, Codes ..................22
2.1.2 Nomenclatural Objects ...............................................24
2.1.3 Nomenclature Regulators ...........................................29
2.1.4 Nomenclatural Activity and Tasks ..............................33
2.2 To the Philosophy of T- Designators .........................................35
2.3 Basic Nomenclature Concepts .................................................42
Chapter 3 Basic Principles of Nomenclature ......................................................47
3.1 General Regulatory Principles .................................................49
3.2 Cognitive Principles .................................................................52
3.3 Linguistic Principles ................................................................57
3.4 Juridical Principles ...................................................................63
3.5 Taxonomic Principles ...............................................................76
3.6 Pragmatic and Other Principles ...............................................93
Historical Part
Chapter 4 An Overview and the Beginning ........................................................97
4.1 Main Historical Trends and Stages ..........................................98
4.2 The Empirical Route ..............................................................100
4.2.1 Folk Nomenclature ...................................................101
4.2.2 Language of Proto- Systematics ................................103
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Chapter 5 The Essentialist Route ......................................................................115
5.1 Major Features .......................................................................115
5.2 Pre- Linnaean Stage ................................................................118
5.3 Linnaean Reform ...................................................................125
Chapter 6 The Nominalist Route ......................................................................135
6.1 Dawn of Nominalism .............................................................137
6.1.1 Adansonean Reform: A Failed Attempt ...................138
6.1.2 Affirmation of Binomial Nomenclature ...................139
6.2 The 19th Century: Basic Issues ..............................................144
6.2.1 Rank Fragmentation and Rank Dependence ............144
6.2.2 Priority vs. Usage .....................................................146
6.2.3 Circumscription vs. Characters vs. Types .................147
6.2.4 Classicality vs. Arbitrariness of Names ....................149
6.3 The 19th Century: Codification of Nomenclature .................150
6.3.1 First Codes ................................................................151
6.3.1.1 Botany .......................................................151
6.3.1.2 Zoology .....................................................156
6.3.2 The “Great Schism”: Multiplication of Codes .........161
6.3.2.1 Botany .......................................................161
6.3.2.2 Zoology .....................................................171
6.3.3 Prototypes of BioCode .............................................178
6.4 The 20th Century: Traditions and Innovations ......................182
6.4.1 Major Trends ............................................................182
6.4.2 Botany ......................................................................187
6.4.3 Zoology ....................................................................190
6.4.4 Microbiology ............................................................193
6.4.5 Cultivated Plants .......................................................194
6.5 Draft BioCode ........................................................................195
Chapter 7 The Conceptualist Route ..................................................................197
7.1 Rational- Logical Nomenclature .............................................198
7.2 Phylogenetic Nomenclature ...................................................202
Instead of Conclusion: A General Outlook ........................................................207
References .............................................................................................................211
Index ......................................................................................................................255
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Preface
Taxonomic nomenclature (often called biological, but this is not fully correct; see
Introduction) constitutes an important part of the professional language of biological
systematics. The latter describes the diversity of organisms by arranging them in taxa
of various levels of generality and assigning them scientific names. These names serve
as one of the important aids of communications both between taxonomists them-
selves and between them and various users of taxonomic knowledge. The nomencla-
ture manages all these names in a certain way by regulating how they are established,
allocated, corrected, rejected, etc., with the principles and rules that are summarized
by the rulebooks, usually called Rules, Laws, or Codes.
This explains the great attention paid by systematists to various issues concerning
taxonomic nomenclature. Its principles and rules have been being elaborated since
the 16th century, when biological systematics began developing its scientific method
together with its professional language. At present, it is still subject to the active
public discussions aimed at its improvement, with participation of not only profes-
sional systematic biologists but also philosophers, and the new Codes still appear, at
least as projects (such as PhyloCode, BioCode, Linz ZooCode). The textbooks and
manuals on biological systematics usually contain sections on nomenclature, and
several books were published especially devoted to it. However, they are of empir-
ical nature and mostly comment on the provisions and working principles of the
current Codes.
With this book, I would like to bring to your attention a substantively different
look at taxonomic nomenclature. It is provided for by a general understanding that the
latter, being a part of the professional language of systematics, cannot be considered
outside the meaningful context imposed by the whole of systematics, not only empir-
ical but also theoretical. My main objective is to consider in depth some ideas of what
the nomenclature is as a specific linguistic system, how it is structured and functions
in this capacity, how and why it develops, and how the nomenclature concepts and
principles correlate with each other and with certain regulators “external” to them. In
this regard, one of the important objectives of the exploration of taxonomic nomen-
clature becomes consideration of certain general mechanisms that determine its basic
structure and development. In particular, special emphasis is given to the “hidden”
impact of the theoretical foundations of systematics on taxonomic nomenclature to
make this impact more evident and thus explicitly interpretable.
Such a wide-s cope largely conceptual consideration of taxonomic nomenclature
allows the highlighting of the following important points in it that usually elude the
attention of its explorers and interpreters bounded by a commonly accepted view:
• The nomenclature principles and rules, as they are summarized by the Codes,
were established on a precedence basis and therefore are purely empirical; so
the whole of nomenclature needs thorough theoretical analysis.
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