[tcs-lc] TCS/LC Name Domain

[Richard Pyle]

I don't want to confuse the identification issue with the issue of
"semi-scientific" names applied to real concepts (I hope it's now clear that
these are different issues).  However, I do have some questions about the
distinction between identifications and concepts.

> 3. The list of birds I have observed around my home is a list of
> identifications. A determination label on a museum specimen is an
> identification, even though the specific concept being linked to might be
> unclear. A publication that lists the taxa known from a specific
> geographic area is a list of identifications if and only if there is a
> statement as to which field guide or other authoritative set of concepts
> the names are being linked to; otherwise it is a list of concepts (albeit
> rather vague, as in the ITIS list).

The vast majority of checklists and field guides that I encounter do not
include a statement refering to some other source of defined concepts --
does that mean that these checklists and field guides define concepts for
all the names they list (that are not specifically mapped to a
previously-defined concept)?

> 4. An identification can have attributes, such as fit.

Can you define the term "fit" in this context?

> 6. For qualifying components of an identification event, I have found it
> useful to use the five fit values employed by the fuzzy logic community
> [see S. Gopal and C. Woodcock. 1994, Theory and methods for accuracy
> assessment of thematic maps using fuzzy sets. Photogrammetric Engineering
> and Remote Sensing 60(2):181-188]: Absolutely wrong, understandable but
> wrong, reasonable or acceptable answer, good answer, absolutely correct.

Hmmmm....but aren't all identifications really opinions?  Sometimes they are
opinions about whether a given individual falls within the scope of a
particular concept circumscription.  Other times they are opinions about
what the concept circumscription of the applied name is.  But they are
almost always opinions.  The only time they are "Absolutely wrong" are true
misidentifications (i.e., when the identifier would not have included the
holotype of the applied name within his/her intended concept circumscription
of it).  The only time they are "absolutely correct" is when the
identification applies to the holotype of the name it is identified as.  The
other three are opinions about opinions.

Aloha,
Rich