Re: DOCBOOK: Marking Up Taxonomic Names

[Mike Taylor <mike@seatbooker.net>]

> Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 13:05:33 +0100
> From: Nigel Hardy <nwh@aber.ac.uk>
> 
>> Then I wondered about <foreignphrase>, but first that's not really
>> quite accurate, and second, the Processing Expectations section in
>> the book just says "ForeignPrases are _often_ given special
>> typographical treatment, such as italics" (emphasis added) which
>> isn't good enough.
>
> This seems quite correct to me. These names are in italics because
> they are foreign [...]

Well, no.  Plenty of genus and species names are not particularly
foreign.  They're italicised _because_ they're genus and species
names.  (So obviously The Right Answer in DocBook version _n_ is to
have explicit <taxon type="genus"> and similar tags.  But that's not
going to happen soon, and probably not at all.)

> [...] and, if the output mechanism cannot handle italics, some other
> mechanism may be used as a fall back (such as underlining as we did
> in the days of mechanical typewriters).

The problem is if I run into a stylesheet that decides that it's
appropriate to, for example, use a bold font for foreign phrases.  For
taxonomic names, that's not merely inappropriate -- it's just plain
wrong.  (Biologists are very picky about that kind of thing.)

Whether or not a name is italicised tells a taxonomist the status of
the name.  With italics, it means that the taxon has been formally
described and figured, and that the description has been published in
a recognised journal.  It's there to be cited in subsequent
literature.  Without italics, it's a "nude name", which is "not a
proper scientific name" and shoouldn't be used.  We can talk all we
want about how typography should not carry semantics like that (and I
agree) but that's how it is in the wacky world of taxonomy.

 _/|_	 _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor   <mike@miketaylor.org.uk>   www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be
	 subtle or clever.  Use a pile driver.  Hit the point once.
	 Then come back and hit it again.  Then hit it a third time --
	 a tremendous whack" -- Winston Churchill.