Wiktionary:Taxonomic names

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Taxonomic names have peculiar features that deserve special consideration. Specifically, they are translingual, usable in any language that can accommodate Latin script and actually in use in scientific and other discourse in many languages. The names form a hierarchical structure, that is, however, subject to revision. Official bodies determining the status of names and of the hierarchical structure, which determinations strongly influence usage. Although taxonomic names have advantages and are widely known, vernacular names are more common in each language in which the species and genera occur.

Information structure

Information about taxonomic names is relatively highly structured. That structure may make it easier to use templates to facilitate the improvement of entries. Some of that structure follows:

  1. Taxonomic level (argument 1 in {{taxon}} or level=) [mandatory]
  2. Placement in taxonomic hierarchy (arguments 2 and 3 in {{taxon}} or Hyponyms/Hypernyms/Coordinate terms semantic relations headers) ["-" to facilitate transition to use of semantic relations headers]
  3. Type status (type for hyponyms?, type) [to be shown in Hyponyms, Hypernyms]
  4. Status of name (synonym, basionym, etc) [junior synonymy eliminates need for full def., some others indicate reason for obsolescence, archaicism]
  5. English vernacular name (vern=) [may not exist or may only differ by capitalization or trivial morphological difference]
  6. Range (range=) ("cosmopolitan" unmarked) [useful for soliciting translation requests]
  7. Extinct or not (x=1*) ("extant" unmarked) [use of † to mark extinct?].
  8. Differentia (?) (diff=) [relative to natural or taxonomic hypernym?]
  9. Importance to humans {imp=, optional)
  10. Phylogenetic status (monophyletic, paraphyletic*, polyphyletic*) (phyl=)
  11. "Natural" hyponym [natural to whom?] (hyp=)

Abbreviations in parentheses are not yet implemented. Items with "*" would be marked.

Arguably, items 1, 2, and 3 are more clearly conveyed under the Hypernyms and Hyponyms categories. Though it is standard lexicographic practice to include a hypernym in a definition, in the case of taxonomic names, some of the hyponyms have no meaning to normal users and little to others, being either obscure themselves or mere morphological relatives of the definiendum. Thus our use of {{taxon}}, as structured, arguably has taken us down a wrong track.

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See also

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Last modified on 26 November 2012, at 14:32