Re: [geolang-comment] First proposals for ISO 639 and 3166 available

[John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>]

Lars Marius Garshol scripsit:

> [...] and by both of these definitions "710" is an occurrence of South
> Africa, given that it is an information resource relevant to the
> country South Africa.

Concedo.

> | OTOH, "710" does name (within a suitably restricted scope) that
> | country, in the sense of being a unique label for it.  
> 
> Absolutely, but not a human-readable one. 

Why not?  I can well imagine some U.N. statistician saying or emailing
to a colleague:  "Hey, are the 2001 population figures for 710 in yet?"
Admittedly, "710" is a name only to a restricted group, but that's
the whole point of scoped names:  "Lucky Thirteen" is the name of
the building I live in only to a restricted group, viz. my family.
On the other hand, "The document beginning 'When in the course of
human events'" is not the name of anything, because it is not a name at all.

I think it's futile to try to draw a bright line around the concept
"name, properly so called, as distinct from mere description".
Nonetheless I think "710" is on the name side of the line.

-- 
A mosquito cried out in his pain,               John Cowan
"A chemist has poisoned my brain!"              http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
        The cause of his sorrow                 http://www.reutershealth.com
        Was para-dichloro-                      jcowan@reutershealth.com
Diphenyltrichloroethane.                                (aka DDT)