"polarized" terminology

[Ken Kinman]

    I'll have to think about the semantics of this one.  I was thinking that
there is a difference between polarizing characters and polarizing
"character states" (which is a special case of "ordering" character states).
     What term would one apply to polarizing (dividing) a character into
just two character states?  Whatever you call that kind of polarization, it
needs to be done before one can perform a cladistic polarization (i.e., in
the strict sense) of the "character states" (i.e. "ordering" sensu lato).
Is Curtis referring to polarizing his characters, or is he just ordering the
character states?
     Don't mean to nitpick, but I've never really pondered the details of
this terminology.  I'll really have to give this some more thought.
         -------  Ken
****************************************
>From: Curtis Clark <jcclark at CSUPOMONA.EDU>
>Reply-To: Curtis Clark <jcclark at CSUPOMONA.EDU>
>To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
>Subject: Re: polarized and unpolarized
>Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 09:51:34 -0800
>
>At 10:01 PM 1/5/02, Ken Kinman wrote:
>>      Just a quick response (past my bedtime and my brain is already half
>>asleep).  :-)
>
>Evidently. I've never known Ken to get a terminology definition wrong
>before.
>
>Polarization refers to deciding which among a set of character states is
ancestral and which are derived.
>
>--
>Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
>Biological Sciences Department             Voice: (909) 869-4062
>California State Polytechnic University      FAX: (909) 869-4078
>Pomona CA 91768-4032  USA                  jcclark at csupomona.edu

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