Nomenclature (UK:/noʊˈmɛŋklətʃə,nə-/,US:/ˈnoʊmənkleɪtʃər/)[1][2] is asystem ofnames or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences.[3] (The theoretical field studying nomenclature is sometimes referred to asonymology ortaxonymy[4]). The principles of naming vary from the relatively informalconventions of everyday speech to the internationally agreed principles, rules, and recommendations that govern the formation and use of the specialistterminology used in scientific and any other disciplines.[5]
Naming "things" is a part of general humancommunication usingwords andlanguage: it is an aspect of everydaytaxonomy as people distinguish the objects of their experience, together with their similarities and differences, which observersidentify, name andclassify. The use of names, as the many different kinds ofnouns embedded in different languages, connects nomenclature totheoretical linguistics, while the way humans mentally structure the world in relation toword meanings andexperience relates to thephilosophy of language.
Onomastics, the study ofproper names and their origins, includes:anthroponymy (concerned with human names, includingpersonal names,surnames andnicknames);toponymy (the study of place names); andetymology (the derivation, history and use of names) as revealed throughcomparative anddescriptive linguistics.
The scientific need for simple, stable and internationally accepted systems for naming objects of the natural world has generated many formal nomenclatural systems.[citation needed] Probably the best known of these nomenclatural systems are the five codes ofbiological nomenclature that govern theLatinizedscientific names oforganisms.
The wordnomenclature is derived from theLatin wordnomen ('name'), andcalare ('to call'). The Latin termnomenclatura refers to a list of names, as does the wordnomenclator, which can also indicate a provider or announcer of names.
The study of propernames is known asonomastics, which has a wide-ranging scope that encompasses all names, languages, and geographical regions, as well ascultural areas.[6]
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.[citation needed]
Due to social, political, religious, and cultural motivations, things that are the same may be given different names, while different things may be given the same name; closely related similar things may be considered separate, while on the other hand significantly different things might be considered the same.
For example,Hindi andUrdu are both closely related, mutually intelligibleHindustani languages (one beingsanskritised and the otherarabised). However, they are favored as separate languages byHindus andMuslims respectively, as seen in the context ofHindu-Muslim conflict resulting in the violence of the 1947Partition of India. In contrast, mutually unintelligible dialects that differ considerably in structure, such asMoroccan Arabic,Yemeni Arabic, andLebanese Arabic, are considered to be the same language due to thepan-Islamism religious identity.[7][8][9]
Names provide us with a way of structuring andmapping the world in ourminds so, in some way, they mirror or represent the objects of our experience.
Elucidating the connections between language (especially names and nouns), meaning, and the way we perceive the world has provided a rich field of study forphilosophers andlinguists. Relevant areas of study include: the distinction between proper names andproper nouns;[10] as well as the relationship between names,[11] theirreferents,[12] meanings (semantics), and thestructure of language.
Modern scientific taxonomy has been described as "basically a Renaissance codification of folk taxonomic principles."[13]Formal systems of scientific nomenclature andclassification are exemplified bybiological classification. Allclassification systems are established for a purpose. The scientific classification system anchors each organism within thenested 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 prehistory.[14]
Folk taxonomy can be illustrated through the Western tradition ofhorticulture andgardening. 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:
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" likeBronislaw Malinowski who maintain that names and classifications reflect mainly material concerns, and "intellectualists" likeClaude Lévi-Strauss who hold that they spring from innate mental processes.[15] The literature of ethnobiological classifications was reviewed in 2006.[16] Folk classification is defined by the way in which members of a language community name and categorize plants and animals whereasethnotaxonomy refers to the hierarchical structure, organic content, and cultural function of biological classification that ethnobiologists find in every society around the world.[16]: 14
Ethnographic studies of the naming and classification of animals and plants in non-Western societies have revealed some general principles that suggest pre-scientific man's conceptual and linguistic method of organising the biological world in a hierarchical way.[17][18][19][20] Such studies indicate that the urge to classify is a basic human instinct.[21][22]
The levels, moving from the most to least inclusive, are:
In almost all cultures objects are named using one or two words equivalent to 'kind' (genus) and 'particular kind' (species).[13] When made up of two words (abinomial) the name usually consists of a noun (likesalt,dog orstar) 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, orfilm 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 likeSimpson and another adjectival Christian or forename name that specifies which Simpson, sayHomer Simpson. It seems reasonable to assume that the form of scientific names we callbinomial 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 utilitarian view other authors maintain that ethnotaxonomies resemble more a "complex web of resemblances" than a neat hierarchy.[23] Likewise, a recent study has suggested that some folk taxonomies display more than six ethnobiological categories.[24] Others go further and even doubt the reality of such categories,[25] especially those above the generic name level.[26]
A name is a label for any noun: names can identify a class orcategory of things; or a single thing, either uniquely or within a givencontext. Names are given, for example, tohumans or any otherorganisms,places,products—as inbrand names—and even toideas orconcepts. It is names as nouns that are the building blocks of nomenclature.
The wordname is possibly derived from theProto-Indo-European language hypothesised wordnomn.[27] The distinction between names and nouns, if made at all, is extremely subtle,[28] although clearlynoun refers to names aslexical categories and their function within the context of language,[29] rather that as "labels" for objects and properties.
Humanpersonal names, also referred to asprosoponyms,[30] are presented, used and categorised in many ways depending on the language and culture. In most cultures (Indonesia is one exception) it is customary for individuals to be given at least two names. In Western culture, the first name is given at birth or shortly thereafter and is referred to as thegiven name, theforename, thebaptismal name (if given then), or simply thefirst name. In England prior to the Norman invasion of 1066, small communities ofCelts,Anglo-Saxons andScandinavians generally used single names: each person was identified by a single name as either a personal name ornickname. 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 thesecond name,last name,family name,surname or occasionally thebyname, 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, or matronym (a name derived from the given name of the mother), and surnames are rarely used.Nicknames (sometimes calledhypocoristic names) are informal names used mostly between friends.
The distinction betweenproper names andcommon names 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 ofCollective nouns, they refer to groups, even when they are inflected for thesingular e.g. "committee".Concrete nouns like "cabbage" refer to physical bodies that can be observed by at least one of the senses whileabstract 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."Pronouns like "he", "it", "which", and "those" stand in place of nouns innoun phrases.
The capitalization of nouns varies with language and even the particular context: journals often have their ownhouse styles for common names.
Distinctions may be made between particular kinds of names simply by using the suffix-onym, from the Greekónoma (ὄνομα, 'name'). So we have, for example,hydronyms name bodies of water,synonyms are names with the same meaning, and so on. The entire field could be described as chrematonymy—the names of things.
Toponyms areproper names given to various geographical features (geonyms), and also to cosmic features (cosmonyms). This could include names of mountains, rivers, seas, villages, towns, cities, countries, planets, stars etc. Toponymy can be further divided into specialist branches, like:choronymy, the study of proper names of regions and countries;econymy, the study of proper names of villages, towns and cities;hodonymy, the study of proper names of streets and roads;hydronymy, the study of proper names of water bodies;oronymy, the study of proper names of mountains and hills, etc.[31][32][33]
Toponymy has popular appeal because of its socio-cultural and historical interest and significance forcartography. 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 ofmythological characters (Venus,Neptune), and many personal names are derived from place-names, names of nations and the like (Wood, Bridge).[34][35]
In a strictly scientific sense, nomenclature is regarded as a part oftaxonomy (though distinct from it). Moreover, the precision demanded by science in the accurate naming of objects in the natural world has resulted in a variety ofcodes of nomenclature (worldwide-accepted sets of rules onbiological classification).
Taxonomy can be defined as the study of classification including its principles, procedures and rules,[36]: 8 whileclassification itself is the ordering of taxa (the objects of classification) into groups based on similarities or differences.[37][38] Doing taxonomy entails identifying, describing,[39] and naming taxa;[40] therefore, in the scientific sense, nomenclature is the branch of taxonomy concerned with the application of scientific names totaxa, based on a particular classification scheme, in accordance with agreed international rules and conventions.
Identification determines whether a particular organism matches a taxon that has already been classified and named – so classification must precede identification.[41] This procedure is sometimes referred to asdetermination.[36]: 5
AlthoughLinnaeus' system ofbinomial nomenclature was rapidly adopted after the publication of hisSpecies Plantarum andSystema Naturae in 1753 and 1758 respectively, it was a long time before there was international consensus concerning the more general rules governingbiological 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.
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 usingastronomical naming conventions, while assigning names to the most interesting objects and, where relevant, naming important or interesting features of those objects.
TheIUPAC nomenclature is a system of namingchemical compounds and for describing the science ofchemistry in general. It is maintained by theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Similarcompendia exist forbiochemistry[51] (in association with theIUBMB),analytical chemistry[52] andmacromolecular chemistry.[53] These books are supplemented by shorter recommendations for specific circumstances which are published from time to time in thejournalPure and Applied Chemistry. These systems can be accessed through theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
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