[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]
RE: Playin' Yer Banji
A quick momentary return as my retail job slows now that my last two weeks of
Valentine's preparation is over (and I have the blasted day off).
I wrote:
<<I understand, but the way *Mei long* works is effectively a uninomial broken
into two, rather than any attempt at a Latin phrase. Any time at this poin that
thye same naming convention is u[s]ed [sic] as in *Mei*, I will exect the
exception in intent will prove greater than any attempt to parse it into
Latin/Greek.>>
<I'm aware that that's the intent, but that doesn't mean I have to like it! :-)
Seriously, it strikes me as pretty arrogant of a couple of recent authors to
try to unilaterally overturn a 200-year-old system of nomenclature.>
I would say at the first that it is hardly unique, though very unusual, and
part of a trend in nomenclature that decides to revise the structure of a
phrase in the name of an organism. At that point alone, I agree with you. In
many ways, I feel that the familiar form of noun and appositional noun are
secure, useful, and fit themselves to the structure of a translatable phrase in
the language it emulates. But when it comes to using other languages, it is not
easy to wrap one's head around the idea that the structure of the phrase is
just as useful when written with a unique set of compounds plus nouns. My
general response is to simply say that the familiar is comfortable, and that
the unfamiliar provocative; this does not make it wrong (aesthetically), even
if it ignores the rules of Latin grammar (in which case it _is_ wrong).
Previously, we had *Guanlong*, *Dilong*, *Xiongguanlong* and *Beishanlong*,
and all had appositional "species" names attached to them. It seems interesting
to deviate from this in *Banji long*, even if the first name is elegant on its
own (and a useful descriptor without "long" attached), and the unfamiliarity of
it provokes discussion.
Cheers,
Jaime A. Headden
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn
from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent
disinclination to do so." --- Douglas Adams (Last Chance to See)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a
different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race
has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or
his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion
Backs)
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469228/direct/01/