The Growth of Ethnobiological Nomenclature [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract

This paper evaluates Brent Berlin's general principles of folk biological classification and nomenclature in view of evidence from hunter-gatherer groups which has accumulated over the past decade. In particular it focuses on his proposals concerning the growth and development of ethnobiological nomenclature. One proposal is that generic/type-specific polysemy (e.g., use of a single word to denote both oak tree in general and a single species of oak) develops through restriction of reference whereby a term for a generic class (e,g., oak) is extended referentially to an important member of that class (e.g., live oak). Such a development accords with Berlin's claim that generic categories are always the first biological classes to be lexically encoded y languages. Evidence from hunter-gatherer groups, however, indicates that the reverse process, i.e., expansion of reference, is the primary way in which generic/type-specific polysemy arises. Several recent cross-language investigations of lexical change lend support to this interpretation. This finding has an important implication for understanding the broad dimensions of the growth of ethnobiological nomenclature, namely, that classes of the specific rank developmentally precede those of the generic rank. Some speculations on details of nomenclatural change accompanying development of generic/type-specific polysemy are offered.