Nomenclature
Encyclopedia
Nomenclature is a term that applies to either a list of names or terms, or to the system of principle
s, procedures
and terms
related to naming - which is the assigning of a word or phrase to a particular object or property. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally-agreed principles, rules and recommendations that govern the formation and use of the specialist terms used in scientific and other disciplines.
Naming "things" is a part of our general communication
using word
s and language
: it is an aspect of everyday taxonomy
as we distinguish the objects of our experience, together with their similarities and differences, which we identify
, name and classify. The use of names, as the many different kinds of noun
s embedded in different languages, connects nomenclature to theoretical linguistics
, while the way we mentally structure the world in relation to word meanings and experience relates to the philosophy of language
.
Onomastics
, the study of proper names and their origins, includes: anthroponymy
, concerned with human names, including personal names, surnames and nicknames; toponymy
the study of place names; and etymology
, the derivation, history and use of names as revealed through comparative
and descriptive linguistics
.
The scientific need for simple, stable and internationally-accepted systems for naming objects of the natural world has generated many formal nomenclatural systems. Probably the best known of these nomenclatural systems are the five codes of biological nomenclature that govern the Latin
ized scientific names of organism
s.
nomen - name
, calare - to call; the Ancient Greek
ονοματοκλήτωρ from όνομα or onoma meaning name and equivalent to the Old English nama and Old High German
namo which is derived from Sanskrit
nama. The Latin term nomenclatura refers to a list of names as does the word nomenclator
which can also indicate a provider or announcer of names.
s is known as onomastics
, which has a wide-ranging scope encompassing all names, all languages, all geographical and cultural regions. The distinction between onomastics and nomenclature is not readily clear: onomastics is an unfamiliar discipline to most people and the use of nomenclature in an academic sense is also not commonly known. Although the two fields integrate, nomenclature concerns itself more with the rules and conventions that are used for the formation of names.
ping the world in our mind
s so, in some way, they mirror or represent the objects of our experience.
), and the structure of language.
Formal scientific nomenclatural and classification systems are exemplified by biological classification
. All classification systems are established for a purpose. The scientific classification system anchors each organism within the nested hierarchy of internationally-accepted classification categories. Maintenance of this system involves formal rules of nomenclature and periodic international meetings of review. This modern system evolved from the folk taxonomy
of pre-history. Folk taxonomy can be illustrated through the Western tradition of horticulture and gardening. Unlike scientific taxonomy, folk taxonomies serve many purposes. Examples in horticulture would be the grouping of plants, and naming of these groups, according to their properties and uses: annual
s, biennial
s and perennial
s (nature of life cycle); vegetable
s, fruit
s, culinary herbs and spice
s (culinary use); herb
s, tree
s and shrub
s (growth habit); wild and cultivated plants (whether they are managed or not), and weed
s (whether they are considered to be a nuisance or not) and so on.
Folk taxonomy is generally associated with the way rural or indigenous peoples use language to make sense of and organise the objects around them. Ethnobiology
frames this interpretation through either "utilitarianists" like Bronislaw Malinowski
who maintain that names and classifications reflect mainly material concerns, and "intellectualists" like Claude Lévi-Strauss
who hold that they spring from innate mental processes. The literature of ethnobiological
classifications was reviewed in 2006. Folk classification is defined by the way in which members of a language community name and categorize plants and animals whereas ethnotaxonomy
refers to the hierarchical structure, organic content, and cultural function of biological classification that ethnobiologists find in every society around the world.
Ethnographic studies of the naming and classification of animals and plants in non-Western societies have revealed some general principles that indicate pre-scientific man’s conceptual and linguistic method of organising the biological world in a hierarchical way. Such studies indicate that the urge to classify is a basic human instinct.
The levels are — moving from the most to least inclusive:
In almost all cultures objects are named using one or two words equivalent to "kind" (genus) and "particular kind" (species). When made up of two words (a binomial
) the name usually consists of a noun (like salt, dog or star) and an adjectival second word that helps describe the first, and therefore makes the name, as a whole, more "specific", for example, lap dog, sea salt, or film star. The meaning of the noun used for a common name may have been lost or forgotten (whelk, elm, lion, shark, pig) but when the common name is extended to two or more words much more is conveyed about the organism's use, appearance or other special properties (sting ray, poison apple, giant stinking hogweed, hammerhead shark). These noun-adjective binomials are just like our own names with a family or surname like Simpson and another adjectival Christian- or forename name that specifies which Simpson, say Homer Simpson. It seems reasonable to assume that the form of scientific names we call binomial nomenclature
is derived from this simple and practical way of constructing common names - but with the use of Latin as a universal language.
In keeping with the "utilitarianist" view other authors maintain that ethnotaxonomies resemble more a "complex web of resemblances" than a neat hierarchy.
. Names can identify a class or category
of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context
. Names ar given, for example, to human
s or any other organism
s, place
s, product
s - as in brand
names - and even to idea
s or concept
s. It is names as nouns that are the building blocks of nomenclature.
The word "name" is possibly derived from the Proto-Indo-European language
hypothesised word nomn. The distinction between names and nouns, if made at all, is extremely subtle although clearly “noun” refers to names as lexical categories
and their function within the context of language, rather that as “labels” for objects and properties.
s. In the Christian tradition the first name is given at baptism and referred to as the Christian name, but it is also known as the given name
, forename or simply the first name. In England
prior to the Norman invasion of 1066 small communities of Celt
s, Anglo-Saxon
s and Scandinavia
ns all used single names, each person being identified by a single name as either a personal name or nickname
. As the population increased, it gradually became necessary to identify people further – giving rise to names like John the butcher, Henry from Sutton, and Roger son of Richard … which naturally evolved into John Butcher, Henry Sutton, and Roger Richardson. We now know this additional name variously as the second name, last name
, family name
, surname
s or occasionally the byname, and this natural tendency was accelerated by the Norman tradition of using surnames that were fixed and hereditary within individual families. In combination these two names are now known as the personal name or, simply, the name. There are many exceptions to this general rule: Westerners often insert a third or more names between the given and surnames; Chinese and Hungarian names have the family name preceding the given name; females now often retain their maiden names (their family surname) or combine, using a hyphen, their maiden name and the surname of their husband; some East Slavic nations insert the patronym (a name derived from the given name of the father) between the given and the family name; in Iceland the given name is used with the patronym and surnames rarely used. Nickname
s (sometimes called hypocoristic
names) are informal names used mostly between friends.
s and common name
s is that proper names denote a unique entity e.g. London Bridge
, while common names are used in a more general sense in reference to a class of objects e.g. bridge
. Many proper names are obscure in meaning as they lack any apparent meaning in the way that ordinary words mean probably for the practical reason that when they consist of Collective nouns refer to groups, even when they are inflected for the singular
e.g. "committee". Concrete nouns like “cabbage” refer to physical bodies that can be observed by at least one of the senses while abstract nouns, like “love” and “hate” refer to abstract objects. In English, many abstract nouns are formed by adding noun-forming suffixes ("-ness", "-ity", "-tion") to adjectives or verbs e.g. "happiness", "serenity" “concentration”. Pronoun
s, like "he", "it", "which", and "those" stand in place of nouns in noun phrase
s.
The capitalization of nouns varies with language and even the particular context: journals often have their own house styles for common names.
, from the Greek ὄνομα (ónoma) 'name'. So we have, for example, hydronym
s name bodies of water, synonym
s are names with the same meaning and so on. Although the entire field could be described as chrematonymy - the names of things.
. However, work on the etymology of toponyms has found that many place names are descriptive, honorific or commemorative but frequently they have no meaning or the meaning is obscure or lost. Also the many categories of names are frequently interrelated. For example, many place-names are derived from personal names ( Victoria), many names of planets and stars are derived from the names of mythological characters (Venus
, Neptune
), and many personal names are derived from place-names, names of nations and the like (Wood, Smith, Bridge).
can be defined as the study of classification including its principles, procedures and rules, while classification itself is the ordering of taxa (the objects of classification) into groups based on similarities or differences. Doing taxonomy entails identifying
, describing and naming taxa so nomenclature, in this strict scientific sense, is that branch of taxonomy concerned with the application of scientific names to taxa, based on a particular classification scheme and in accordance with agreed international rules and conventions.
Identification determines whether a particular taxon
(singular of taxa) is identical to another one that has already been classified and named – so classification must precede identification. As taxa are rarely strictly identical, but only treated as such for the purposes of the classification, this procedure is sometimes referred to as “determination".
The precision demanded by science in the accurate naming of objects in the natural world has resulted in a variety of international nomenclatural codes, standards and protocols.
was rapidly adopted after the publication of his Species Plantarum
and Systema Naturae
in 1753 and 1758 respectively, it was a long time before there was international consensus concerning the more general rules governing biological nomenclature. The first botanical code was produced in 1905, the zoological code in 1889 and cultivated plant code in 1953. Agreement on the nomenclature and symbols for genes emerged in 1979.
, while assigning names to the most interesting objects and, where relevant, naming important or interesting features of those objects.
s and for describing the science of chemistry
in general. It is maintained by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
. The rules for naming organic
and inorganic compound
s are printed in two publications, the Blue Book and the Red Book available
here. A third publication, Green Book, contains recommendations for the use of symbol
s for physical quantities
(in association with the IUPAP), while a fourth, the Gold Book
, defines a large number of technical terms used in chemistry. Similar compendia exist for biochemistry
(in association with the IUBMB), analytical chemistry
and macromolecular chemistry. These books are supplemented by shorter recommendations for specific circumstances which are published from time to time in the journal
Pure and Applied Chemistry
. These systems can be accessed here.
includes an appendix (Appendix C) detailing problems of nomenclature in weights and measures.
Principle
A principle is a law or rule that has to be, or usually is to be followed, or can be desirably followed, or is an inevitable consequence of something, such as the laws observed in nature or the way that a system is constructed...
s, procedures
Procedure (term)
A procedure is a sequence of actions or operations which have to be executed in the same manner in order to always obtain the same result under the same circumstances ....
and terms
Terminology
Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other...
related to naming - which is the assigning of a word or phrase to a particular object or property. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally-agreed principles, rules and recommendations that govern the formation and use of the specialist terms used in scientific and other disciplines.
Naming "things" is a part of our general communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
using word
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
s and language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
: it is an aspect of everyday taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
as we distinguish the objects of our experience, together with their similarities and differences, which we identify
Identification (information)
The function of identification is to map a known quantity to an unknown entity so as to make it known. The known quantity is called the identifier and the unknown entity is what needs identification. A basic requirement for identification is that the Id be unique. Ids may be scoped, that is, they...
, name and classify. The use of names, as the many different kinds of noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s embedded in different languages, connects nomenclature to theoretical linguistics
Theoretical linguistics
Theoretical linguistics is the branch of linguistics that is most concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. The fields that are generally considered the core of theoretical linguistics are syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics...
, while the way we mentally structure the world in relation to word meanings and experience relates to the philosophy of language
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
.
Onomastics
Onomastics
Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" , "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" , from "ὄνομα" "name". Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of...
, the study of proper names and their origins, includes: anthroponymy
Anthroponymy
Anthroponomastics , a branch of onomastics, is the study of anthroponyms Anthroponomastics (or anthroponymy), a branch of onomastics, is the study of anthroponyms Anthroponomastics (or anthroponymy), a branch of onomastics, is the study of anthroponyms (Anthroponomastics (or anthroponymy), a branch...
, concerned with human names, including personal names, surnames and nicknames; toponymy
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
the study of place names; and etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
, the derivation, history and use of names as revealed through comparative
Comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
and descriptive linguistics
Descriptive linguistics
In the study of language, description, or descriptive linguistics, is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is spoken by a group of people in a speech community...
.
The scientific need for simple, stable and internationally-accepted systems for naming objects of the natural world has generated many formal nomenclatural systems. Probably the best known of these nomenclatural systems are the five codes of biological nomenclature that govern the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
ized scientific names of organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
s.
Definition & criteria
Nomenclature is a system of words used in particular discipline. It is used in respect of giving names systematically following the rules to all known living.Etymology
The word nomenclature is derived from the LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
nomen - name
Name
A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...
, calare - to call; the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
ονοματοκλήτωρ from όνομα or onoma meaning name and equivalent to the Old English nama and Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
namo which is derived from Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
nama. The Latin term nomenclatura refers to a list of names as does the word nomenclator
Nomenclator (nomenclature)
A nomenclator is derived from the Latin nomen- name + calare - to call. In classical times it referred to a slave whose duty was to recall the names of persons his master met during a political campaign...
which can also indicate a provider or announcer of names.
Onomastics and nomenclature
The study of proper nameName
A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...
s is known as onomastics
Onomastics
Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" , "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" , from "ὄνομα" "name". Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of...
, which has a wide-ranging scope encompassing all names, all languages, all geographical and cultural regions. The distinction between onomastics and nomenclature is not readily clear: onomastics is an unfamiliar discipline to most people and the use of nomenclature in an academic sense is also not commonly known. Although the two fields integrate, nomenclature concerns itself more with the rules and conventions that are used for the formation of names.
Naming as a cultural activity
Names provide us with a way of structuring and mapMap
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
ping the world in our mind
Mind
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...
s so, in some way, they mirror or represent the objects of our experience.
Names, words, language and meaning
Elucidating the connections between language (especially names and nouns), meaning and the way we perceive the world has provided a rich field of study for philosophers and linguists. Relevant areas of study include: the distinction between proper names and proper nouns; and the relationship between names, their referents, meanings (semanticsSemantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
), and the structure of language.
Folk taxonomy
Modern scientific taxonomy has been described as "basically a Renaissance codification of folk taxonomic principles."Formal scientific nomenclatural and classification systems are exemplified by biological classification
Biological classification
Biological classification, or scientific classification in biology, is a method to group and categorize organisms by biological type, such as genus or species. Biological classification is part of scientific taxonomy....
. All classification systems are established for a purpose. The scientific classification system anchors each organism within the nested hierarchy of internationally-accepted classification categories. Maintenance of this system involves formal rules of nomenclature and periodic international meetings of review. This modern system evolved from the folk taxonomy
Folk taxonomy
A folk taxonomy is a vernacular naming system, and can be contrasted with scientific taxonomy. Folk biological classification is the way peoples describe and organize their natural surroundings/the world around them, typically making generous use of form taxa like "shrubs", "bugs", "ducks",...
of pre-history. Folk taxonomy can be illustrated through the Western tradition of horticulture and gardening. Unlike scientific taxonomy, folk taxonomies serve many purposes. Examples in horticulture would be the grouping of plants, and naming of these groups, according to their properties and uses: annual
Annual plant
An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...
s, biennial
Biennial plant
A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots , then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. Usually the stem remains very short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming...
s and perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
s (nature of life cycle); vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s, culinary herbs and spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
s (culinary use); herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
s, tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s and shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s (growth habit); wild and cultivated plants (whether they are managed or not), and weed
Weed
A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, especially farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, woods, and other areas. More specifically, the term is often used to...
s (whether they are considered to be a nuisance or not) and so on.
Folk taxonomy is generally associated with the way rural or indigenous peoples use language to make sense of and organise the objects around them. Ethnobiology
Ethnobiology
]Ethnobiology is the scientific study of dynamic relationships between peoples, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present....
frames this interpretation through either "utilitarianists" like Bronislaw Malinowski
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish-born- British-naturalized anthropologist, one of the most important 20th-century anthropologists.From 1910, Malinowski studied exchange and economics at the London School of Economics under Seligman and Westermarck, analysing patterns of exchange in...
who maintain that names and classifications reflect mainly material concerns, and "intellectualists" like Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
who hold that they spring from innate mental processes. The literature of ethnobiological
Ethnobiology
]Ethnobiology is the scientific study of dynamic relationships between peoples, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present....
classifications was reviewed in 2006. Folk classification is defined by the way in which members of a language community name and categorize plants and animals whereas ethnotaxonomy
Ethnotaxonomy
The term ethnotaxonomy refers either to that subdiscipline within ethnology which studies the taxonomic systems defined and used by individual ethnic groups, or to the operative individual taxonomy itself, which is the object of the ethnologist's immediate study.For example, in many West African...
refers to the hierarchical structure, organic content, and cultural function of biological classification that ethnobiologists find in every society around the world.
Ethnographic studies of the naming and classification of animals and plants in non-Western societies have revealed some general principles that indicate pre-scientific man’s conceptual and linguistic method of organising the biological world in a hierarchical way. Such studies indicate that the urge to classify is a basic human instinct.
- in all languages natural groups of organisms are distinguished (present-day taxa)
- these groups are arranged into more inclusive groups or ethnobiological categories
- in all languages there are about five or six ethnobiological categories of graded inclusiveness
- these groups (ethnobiological categories) are arranged hierarchically, generally into mutually exclusive ranks
- the ranks at which particular organisms are named and classified is often similar in different cultures
The levels are — moving from the most to least inclusive:
- level 1 - "unique beginner" --e.g. plant or animal. A single all-inclusive name rarely used in folk taxonomies but loosely equivalent to an original living thing, a "common ancestor"
- level 2 - “life form” --------------e.g. tree, bird, grass and fish These are usually primary lexemes (basic linguistic units) loosely equivalent to a phylum or major biological division.
- level 3 - "generic name" ------e.g. oak, pine, robin, catfish This is the most numerous and basic building block of all folk taxonomies, the most frequently referred to, the most important psychologically, and among the first learned by children. These names can usually be associated directly with a second level group. Like life-form names these are primary lexemes.
- level 4 - "specific name" ------e.g. white fir, post oak More or less equivalent to species. A secondary lexeme and generally less frequent than generic names.
- level 5 - "varietal name"--------e.g. baby lima bean, butter lima bean.
In almost all cultures objects are named using one or two words equivalent to "kind" (genus) and "particular kind" (species). When made up of two words (a binomial
Binomial
In algebra, a binomial is a polynomial with two terms —the sum of two monomials—often bound by parenthesis or brackets when operated upon...
) the name usually consists of a noun (like salt, dog or star) and an adjectival second word that helps describe the first, and therefore makes the name, as a whole, more "specific", for example, lap dog, sea salt, or film star. The meaning of the noun used for a common name may have been lost or forgotten (whelk, elm, lion, shark, pig) but when the common name is extended to two or more words much more is conveyed about the organism's use, appearance or other special properties (sting ray, poison apple, giant stinking hogweed, hammerhead shark). These noun-adjective binomials are just like our own names with a family or surname like Simpson and another adjectival Christian- or forename name that specifies which Simpson, say Homer Simpson. It seems reasonable to assume that the form of scientific names we call binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages...
is derived from this simple and practical way of constructing common names - but with the use of Latin as a universal language.
In keeping with the "utilitarianist" view other authors maintain that ethnotaxonomies resemble more a "complex web of resemblances" than a neat hierarchy.
Names and nouns
A name is a label for any nounNoun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
. Names can identify a class or category
Category of being
In metaphysics , the different kinds or ways of being are called categories of being or simply categories. To investigate the categories of being is to determine the most fundamental and the broadest classes of entities...
of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context
Context (language use)
Context is a notion used in the language sciences in two different ways, namely as* verbal context* social context- Verbal context :...
. Names ar given, for example, to human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s or any other organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
s, place
Location (geography)
The terms location and place in geography are used to identify a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term 'location' generally implies a higher degree of can certainty than "place" which often has an ambiguous boundary relying more on human/social attributes of place identity...
s, product
Product (business)
In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
s - as in brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
names - and even to idea
Idea
In the most narrow sense, an idea is just whatever is before the mind when one thinks. Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; i.e. images of some object. In other contexts, ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear as images...
s or concept
Concept
The word concept is used in ordinary language as well as in almost all academic disciplines. Particularly in philosophy, psychology and cognitive sciences the term is much used and much discussed. WordNet defines concept: "conception, construct ". However, the meaning of the term concept is much...
s. It is names as nouns that are the building blocks of nomenclature.
The word "name" is possibly derived from the Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
hypothesised word nomn. The distinction between names and nouns, if made at all, is extremely subtle although clearly “noun” refers to names as lexical categories
Lexical category
In grammar, a part of speech is a linguistic category of words , which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question. Common linguistic categories include noun and verb, among others...
and their function within the context of language, rather that as “labels” for objects and properties.
Personal names
Human personal names are presented, used and categorised in many ways depending on the language and culture. It is customary nowadays to use two-word names or binomialBinomial
In algebra, a binomial is a polynomial with two terms —the sum of two monomials—often bound by parenthesis or brackets when operated upon...
s. In the Christian tradition the first name is given at baptism and referred to as the Christian name, but it is also known as the given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
, forename or simply the first name. In England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
prior to the Norman invasion of 1066 small communities of Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
s, Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
s and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
ns all used single names, each person being identified by a single name as either a personal name or nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
. As the population increased, it gradually became necessary to identify people further – giving rise to names like John the butcher, Henry from Sutton, and Roger son of Richard … which naturally evolved into John Butcher, Henry Sutton, and Roger Richardson. We now know this additional name variously as the second name, last name
Last Name
"Last Name" is the title of a song composed by country singer Carrie Underwood, Hillary Lindsey and Luke Laird. It is the third single from Underwood's second studio album, Carnival Ride. It was released in the United States on April 7, 2008, by which point the song had already charted...
, family name
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
, surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
s or occasionally the byname, and this natural tendency was accelerated by the Norman tradition of using surnames that were fixed and hereditary within individual families. In combination these two names are now known as the personal name or, simply, the name. There are many exceptions to this general rule: Westerners often insert a third or more names between the given and surnames; Chinese and Hungarian names have the family name preceding the given name; females now often retain their maiden names (their family surname) or combine, using a hyphen, their maiden name and the surname of their husband; some East Slavic nations insert the patronym (a name derived from the given name of the father) between the given and the family name; in Iceland the given name is used with the patronym and surnames rarely used. Nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
s (sometimes called hypocoristic
Hypocoristic
A hypocorism is a shorter form of a word or given name, for example, when used in more intimate situations as a nickname or term of endearment.- Derivation :Hypocorisms are often generated as:...
names) are informal names used mostly between friends.
Common names and proper names
The distinction between proper nameProper name
"A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic , "but not of telling anything about it"...
s and common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
s is that proper names denote a unique entity e.g. London Bridge
London Bridge
London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...
, while common names are used in a more general sense in reference to a class of objects e.g. bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
. Many proper names are obscure in meaning as they lack any apparent meaning in the way that ordinary words mean probably for the practical reason that when they consist of Collective nouns refer to groups, even when they are inflected for the singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
e.g. "committee". Concrete nouns like “cabbage” refer to physical bodies that can be observed by at least one of the senses while abstract nouns, like “love” and “hate” refer to abstract objects. In English, many abstract nouns are formed by adding noun-forming suffixes ("-ness", "-ity", "-tion") to adjectives or verbs e.g. "happiness", "serenity" “concentration”. Pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s, like "he", "it", "which", and "those" stand in place of nouns in noun phrase
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
s.
The capitalization of nouns varies with language and even the particular context: journals often have their own house styles for common names.
-onym nouns
Distinctions may be made between particular kinds of names simply by using the suffix -onym-onym
The suffix onym, in English and other languages, means "word, name," and words ending in onym refer to a specified kind of name or word, most of which are classical compounds. For example, an acronym is a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts...
, from the Greek ὄνομα (ónoma) 'name'. So we have, for example, hydronym
Hydronym
A hydronym is a proper name of a body of water. Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they are transmitted through history...
s name bodies of water, synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
s are names with the same meaning and so on. Although the entire field could be described as chrematonymy - the names of things.
Toponyms
Toponyms are the names given to places or features of a particular district, region, etc. This could include planets, countries, cities, towns, villages, buildings etc.; it can be further divided into specialist branches: hodonymy, the names of streets, roads, and the like; hydronymy, the names of water bodies; and oronomy, the names of mountains. Toponymy has popular appeal because of its socio-cultural and historical interest and significance for cartographyCartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
. However, work on the etymology of toponyms has found that many place names are descriptive, honorific or commemorative but frequently they have no meaning or the meaning is obscure or lost. Also the many categories of names are frequently interrelated. For example, many place-names are derived from personal names ( Victoria), many names of planets and stars are derived from the names of mythological characters (Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
), and many personal names are derived from place-names, names of nations and the like (Wood, Smith, Bridge).
Nomenclature, classification and identification
In biological science, at least, nomenclature is regarded as a part of taxonomy. TaxonomyTaxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
can be defined as the study of classification including its principles, procedures and rules, while classification itself is the ordering of taxa (the objects of classification) into groups based on similarities or differences. Doing taxonomy entails identifying
Identification (biology)
Identification in biology is the process of assigning a pre-existing individual or class name to an individual organism. Identification of organisms to individual names may be based on individualistic natural body features Identification in biology is the process of assigning a pre-existing...
, describing and naming taxa so nomenclature, in this strict scientific sense, is that branch of taxonomy concerned with the application of scientific names to taxa, based on a particular classification scheme and in accordance with agreed international rules and conventions.
Identification determines whether a particular taxon
Taxon
|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...
(singular of taxa) is identical to another one that has already been classified and named – so classification must precede identification. As taxa are rarely strictly identical, but only treated as such for the purposes of the classification, this procedure is sometimes referred to as “determination".
The precision demanded by science in the accurate naming of objects in the natural world has resulted in a variety of international nomenclatural codes, standards and protocols.
Biology
Although Linnaeus’ system of binomial nomenclatureBinomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages...
was rapidly adopted after the publication of his Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...
and Systema Naturae
Systema Naturae
The book was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. The first edition was published in 1735...
in 1753 and 1758 respectively, it was a long time before there was international consensus concerning the more general rules governing biological nomenclature. The first botanical code was produced in 1905, the zoological code in 1889 and cultivated plant code in 1953. Agreement on the nomenclature and symbols for genes emerged in 1979.
-
- International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, see also Botanical nomenclatureBotanical nomenclatureBotanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; botanical nomenclature then provides names for the results of this process. The starting point for modern botanical...
- International Code of Nomenclature of BacteriaInternational Code of Nomenclature of BacteriaThe International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria or Bacteriological Code governs the scientific names for bacteria, including Archaea. It denotes the rules for naming taxa of bacteria, according to their relative rank...
- International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated PlantsInternational Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated PlantsThe International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants regulates the names of cultigens...
- International Code of Zoological NomenclatureInternational Code of Zoological NomenclatureThe International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals...
- Virus nomenclature, used in Virus classificationVirus classificationVirus classification is the process of naming viruses and placing them into a taxonomic system. Similar to the classification systems used for cellular organisms, virus classification is the subject of ongoing debate and proposals. This is mainly due to the pseudo-living nature of viruses, which...
- Enzyme nomenclature
- PhyloCodePhyloCodeThe International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature, known as the PhyloCode for short, is a developing draft for a formal set of rules governing phylogenetic nomenclature...
(the International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature, see also Phylogenetic nomenclaturePhylogenetic nomenclaturePhylogenetic nomenclature or phylogenetic taxonomy is an alternative to rank-based nomenclature, applying definitions from cladistics . Its two defining features are the use of phylogenetic definitions of biological taxon names, and the lack of obligatory ranks...
) - a new convention currently under development. - International standard on human anatomic terminologyTerminologia AnatomicaTerminologia Anatomica is the international standard on human anatomic terminology. It was developed by the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology and the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists and was released in 1998. It supersedes the previous standard, Nomina...
- Terminologia Anatomica - Gene nomenclatureGene nomenclatureGene nomenclature is the scientific naming of genes, the units of heredity in living organisms. An international committee published recommendations for genetic symbols and nomenclature in 1957. The need to develop formal guidelines for human gene names and symbols was recognized in the 1960s and...
- Red Cell Nomenclature
- Medical devices use the naming convention of the Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN).
- International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, see also Botanical nomenclature
Astronomy
Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year. Astronomers need universal systematic designations to unambiguously identify all of these objects using astronomical naming conventionsAstronomical naming conventions
In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year...
, while assigning names to the most interesting objects and, where relevant, naming important or interesting features of those objects.
- Planetary nomenclaturePlanetary nomenclaturePlanetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is a system of uniquely identifying features on the surface of a planet or natural satellite so that the features can be easily located, described, and discussed. The task of assigning official names to features is taken up by the International...
- Meteorite Nomenclature
- International Astronomical UnionInternational Astronomical UnionThe International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
Chemistry
The IUPAC nomenclature is a system of naming chemical compoundChemical compound
A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...
s and for describing the science of chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
in general. It is maintained by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations that represents chemists in individual countries. It is a member of the International Council for Science . The international headquarters of IUPAC is located in Zürich,...
. The rules for naming organic
Organic compound
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...
and inorganic compound
Inorganic compound
Inorganic compounds have traditionally been considered to be of inanimate, non-biological origin. In contrast, organic compounds have an explicit biological origin. However, over the past century, the classification of inorganic vs organic compounds has become less important to scientists,...
s are printed in two publications, the Blue Book and the Red Book available
here. A third publication, Green Book, contains recommendations for the use of symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
s for physical quantities
Physical quantity
A physical quantity is a physical property of a phenomenon, body, or substance, that can be quantified by measurement.-Definition of a physical quantity:Formally, the International Vocabulary of Metrology, 3rd edition defines quantity as:...
(in association with the IUPAP), while a fourth, the Gold Book
Gold Book
The Compendium of Chemical Terminology is a book published by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry containing internationally accepted definitions for terms in chemistry...
, defines a large number of technical terms used in chemistry. Similar compendia exist for biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
(in association with the IUBMB), analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry is the study of the separation, identification, and quantification of the chemical components of natural and artificial materials. Qualitative analysis gives an indication of the identity of the chemical species in the sample and quantitative analysis determines the amount of...
and macromolecular chemistry. These books are supplemented by shorter recommendations for specific circumstances which are published from time to time in the journal
Scientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...
Pure and Applied Chemistry
Pure and Applied Chemistry
Pure and Applied Chemistry is the official journal for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. It is published monthly and contains recommendations and reports, and lectures from symposia....
. These systems can be accessed here.
- International Union of Pure and Applied ChemistryInternational Union of Pure and Applied ChemistryThe International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations that represents chemists in individual countries. It is a member of the International Council for Science . The international headquarters of IUPAC is located in Zürich,...
(IUPAC)
Information technology
There are hundreds of different nomenclatures used in the IT industry and the list is ever expanding due to technological advances and new innovations. Some of the more common nomenclatures used are: SoC(System on Chip), BIOS(Basic Input Output System), CPU(Central Processing Unit), and etc.Metallurgy
The classic English translation of De re metallicaDe re metallica
De re metallica is a book cataloguing the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, published in 1556. The author was Georg Bauer, whose pen name was the Latinized Georgius Agricola...
includes an appendix (Appendix C) detailing problems of nomenclature in weights and measures.
Physics
- Symbols, units and nomenclature in physics. In evoloution the product is nomenclature it evolves in apature involvements.
See also
- International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyInternational Union of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyThe International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is an international non-governmental organisation concerned with biochemistry and molecular biology...
- British Approved NameBritish Approved NameA British Approved Name is the official non-proprietary or generic name given to a pharmaceutical substance, as defined in the British Pharmacopoeia...
- Controlled vocabularyControlled vocabularyControlled vocabularies provide a way to organize knowledge for subsequent retrieval. They are used in subject indexing schemes, subject headings, thesauri, taxonomies and other form of knowledge organization systems...
- Human resource managementHuman resource managementHuman Resource Management is the management of an organization's employees. While human resource management is sometimes referred to as a "soft" management skill, effective practice within an organization requires a strategic focus to ensure that people resources can facilitate the achievement of...
- Library catalogLibrary catalogA library catalog is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations...
- Medical classificationMedical classificationMedical classification, or medical coding, is the process of transforming descriptions of medical diagnoses and procedures into universal medical code numbers...
- MetadataMetadataThe term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
- Naming conventionNaming conventionA naming convention is a convention for naming things. The intent is to allow useful information to be deduced from the names based on regularities. For instance, in Manhattan, streets are numbered, with East-West streets being called "Streets" and North-South streets called "Avenues".-Use...
- Retroactive nomenclatureRetroactive nomenclatureRetroactive nomenclature is the telling of the earlier history of a person, place or thing while referring to said person, place or thing by a name that came into use at a later date.-Names:...
- TerminologyTerminologyTerminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other...
External links
- International Council of Onomastic Sciences Retrieved 2009-09-23.
- American Name Society Promote onomasticsOnomasticsOnomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" , "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" , from "ὄνομα" "name". Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of...
, the study of names and naming practices, both in the United States and abroad. Retrieved 2010-01-11. - Namingschemes.com A wiki dedicated to the education and sharing of naming schemes. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
- Ontology Naming Conventions The application of unified labeling or naming conventions in ontology engineeringOntology engineeringOntology engineering in computer science and information science is a new field, which studies the methods and methodologies for building ontologies: formal representations of a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts....
will help to harmonize the appearance and increase the robustness of ontological representational units such as class and relation names. A full free access paper with the naming conventions is accessible online under http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/125 Retrieved 2010-01-11.
Further reading
- Scheetz, George H. (1988). Names' Names: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon. (“What’s In a Name?” Chapbook Series; 2.) Sioux City, Ia.: Schütz Verlag.