[tcs-lc] Clarification

[Richard Pyle]

I neeed to clarify something I said:

> The identifier knew what it meant in his/her own mind, but in many (most?)
> cases did not specifically map it to (or derive it from) a previous
> definition.

The meaning of that sentence would have been better communicated as:

"The identifier knew what it meant in his/her own mind, but in many (most?)
cases did not map it to (or derive it from) any *particular* previous
definition."

Obviously, the concept definition will have, in most cases, existed
previously in one form or another (although in cases of taxonomic experts
working on a huge monograph, the mental concept may preceed and published
version of it by years or even decades). My point was that when I (and I
think many taxonomists) apply a scientific name to a specimen via an
identification event using a mental construct of a concept, that concept may
or may not happen to be congruent with one or more particular publsished and
well-defined concepts, but was not directly connected to the identification
event.  It's a sublte but important difference.

Sorry for using even more bandwidth...

Aloha,
Rich