Vernacular concepts

[David Remsen]

Primarily, yes it was tongue-in-cheek.  I certainly agree with your
point in reference to the reliability of vernacular names.

What I was referring to was the notion that a scientific name refers to
a taxonomic concept and that concept circumscribes a potential set of
organisms based on the taxonomic judgement of the authority and
different concepts with the same name can circumscribe different sets
of organisms.   Wasn't that part of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse
argument last week?

On Mar 1, 2005, at 11:03 AM, Robin Leech wrote:

> Obviously, your answer is facetious, and your tongue
> is in your cheek.  Might it be stuck there?
> I am sure all the N.Am. birders who use the vernacular name instead of
> the scientific name, would disagree with you (N.Am. Robin vs Turdus
> migratorius).
> As you know, there are at least 2 other bird species
> that have the name "robin" as at least part of the vernacular name.
> Robin
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Remsen" <dremsen at MBL.EDU>
> To: <TAXACOM at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 7:19 AM
> Subject: Re: Vernacular concepts
>
>
>> I thought the point of all the TCS issues was because when someone
>> uses
>> a scientific name they don't have the same organism in mind.
>> On Feb 28, 2005, at 5:31 PM, Robin Leech wrote:
>>> The thing that makes a vernacular name reliable is the same thing
>>> that makes a scientific name reliable - that everyone  who
>>> uses the name, be it vernacular or scientific, has the same
>>> organism in mind.
>>> Robin Leech
>>
>
>
_______________________________________________
David Remsen
uBio Project Developer
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA 02543
508-289-7632