[tcs-lc] Proposal: replace "Is parent/child of" with specific term

[Gregor Hagedorn]

James wrote:

> BTW, I'm unhappy with "is parent of" name because parent is also used
> for hybrids.  Member of/has member could be alternative because the
> word member is used in documentation.

I endorse that, I find this unexpected and illogical as well. 

Not only in hybrids, also in breeding or pathological races true 
parents/children in the biological sense exist. Not to speak of named 
individuals (e.g. animals in zoo)... 

These concepts seem to be not intended, but when reading the list I was 
assuming so. 

I assume the relationship names are derived from programming concepts or tree 
traversal logic. However, in that sense it is a __very general__ concept and 
would suit most, perhaps all relationship types. It thus poorly signifies the 
special case of linnean or phylogenetic/cladistic taxonomic hierarchy.

Furthermore, I feel that it conceptually misleading. If "GenusX" is in 
"FamilyX", the statement "FamilyX" "is parent of" "GenusX" would become false, 
if subfamilies, sub-sub-families, infrafamilies, supragenera, etc. are 
recognized. In fully cladistic treatments, such changes occur almost constantly 
with any new species studied. It is understood that the TCS data would have to 
change, but visualizing taxonomic classes and subclasses as graph relationships 
puts the emphasis wrongly on the exact path of a relationship, rather than on 
class-containment and the compatibility of such statements.

Proposals: 
  member of/has member (James)
  higher-taxon-of, lower-taxon-of, 
  supra-taxon-of, sub-taxon-of, 
  next-higher-taxon-of, next-lower-taxon-of
  parent-taxon-of, child-taxon-of
  sub-taxon-of, sub-taxon-of

Those who would see a late change in this as well, please comment on their 
preference.

Gregor----------------------------------------------------------
Gregor Hagedorn (G.Hagedorn at bba.de)
Institute for Plant Virology, Microbiology, and Biosafety
Federal Research Center for Agriculture and Forestry (BBA)
Königin-Luise-Str. 19           Tel: +49-30-8304-2220
14195 Berlin, Germany           Fax: +49-30-8304-2203