Nomenclature, Terminology, & Classification

Nomenclature (a system of names for things) and classification (the organization of things within categories) are important concepts to consider when dealing with plants, animals, and ethnobiological matters. Ethnobiological studies involve the names for organisms and the ways in which those organisms are categorized. These names and classification or categorization systems vary by language, culture, and application.

Nomenclature: Any plant or animal can have at least two basic types of names: 1) a common name (also known as a vernacular, colloquial, or native name) and 2) a scientific name (i.e., a botanical or zoological Latin name as used within the science of biology).

Common names include the English names by which many species are known within British Columbia (e.g., common cattail). They also include names in First Nations languages, which may include from two to several dialectal variants within a given language. Common names are ordinarily applicable only within a single language (e.g., English or Halkomelem) or dialect (e.g., Upriver, Downriver, or Island Halkomelem). People who do not speak English or Halkomelem cannot understand them. Furthermore, many of the world's species do not have common names in any language. Often, common names may refer to more than one type of plant or animal, sometimes making it difficult to known what organism is being specified. Many times one plant will have more than one common names. For example, common cattail is also known as bulrush, a term that is often used to refer to a range of other unrelated plants.

Scientific names are names that are applied to organisms by biologists in order to communicate clearly and unambiguously across cultural and linguistic boundaries. Complete scientific names consist of two parts. Therefore, they are called binomials (literally, "two names"). For example, Typha latifolia is the binomial or species name for common cattail. Scientific names are derived from Latin and only one scientific name is ever applied to any given species at any given point in time. Any person speaking any language can identify and communicate about a species with any other person as long as both people understand the basic principles of scientific naming. Scientific names are followed by the name or an abbreviation of the name of the biologist who first coined the name and who first described the species. For example, Typha latifolia L. was named by Linnaeus, the botanist who developed the binomial system of nomenclature, which is the standard naming system used in science In animal names, sometimes the date of the publication in which the name was first used also is included.

Terminology: This is the word used to refer to terms for parts of plants and animals. For example, English botanical terminology includes terms like leaf, stem, flower, and so on. In many cases, the terms used in scientific discussions are the same as those used in English. Often, however, they are different, or scientific terms are applied where no English counterpart exists. Halkomelem also has terminology for parts of plants and animals.

Classification: Any plant or animal also has a position within a one or more systems of classification or categorization. For example, to speakers of English, the common cattail is a kind of plant, and plant here refers to a more inclusive category of organisms. Similar systems of plant and animal classification, or categorization, are known for many First Nations languages, but are undocumented and not yet described for others or for various dialects within those languages. These systems may vary significantly from one language to another.

Biologists use standardized hierarchical systems of classifying plants and animals to enable them to store, retrieve, and share information to others throughout the world. For example, the common cattail is the species Typha latifolia, which is classed with the genus Typha, which in turn is classed within the plant family Typhaceae (the cattail family), which is in turn classed within the Plant Kingdom (Kingdom Plantae).