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This page seems to be missing a basic definition of the word. There's a discussion of how it differs in zoology and botony, and an example, but nothing actually says what a tautonym _is_. Jtl 02:08, 13 February 2006 (UTC)Reply
I've tried to reword the article to start with a definition (inspired by the article on tautonymy), then give the examples and finally discuss the differences between zoology and botany. I have changed only the style, since I'm not an expert in this field (well, I've just discovered that my user name is a tautonymy :)). MJ 10:15, 15 April 2006 (UTC)Reply
Having two separate pages for Tautonym and Tautonymy is an utterly ridiculous piece of grammatic pedantry. "Tautonymy – the subject or study of tautonyms; tautonyms collectively, a set of tautonyms". I.e., they are the same. The name Rattus rattus (an animal) is a tautonym. It isn't a tautonymy - there's no such thing as "a tautonymy". So is the name Larix larix (a plant) a tautonym, an example of the tautonymy found in the history of botany. All it means is that the ICBN and the ICZN have slightly different grammatic styles of presentation. There is absolutely no difference between the two codes in their actual use and meaning of the term. The only difference is that one code accepts them for names, the other rejects them. Please study, and learn, some English grammar. - MPF 19:53, 21 June 2006 (UTC)Reply
Clearly the two pages should be merged, it's just a minor difference in wording in the two codes. Gdr 20:04, 22 June 2006 (UTC)Reply
Sure, the opening could be a bit more pedantic. But that's not an argument against merging the articles. Gdr 10:08, 23 June 2006 (UTC)Reply
Just to clarify a bit: the zoological code uses the term "tautonymy" to refer to a concept in which the the genus name and species name (the ICZN does not use the term "epithet" although I know that some zoologistsdo) are identical whereas the botanical code uses the term "tautonym" as a noun to refer to a name in which the genus name and specific epithet are identical. The zoological code uses the phrase "tautonymous name" in place of the word "tautonym". Yet there are botanists who use the word "tautonymy" to refer to a concept and zoologists who use the word "tautonym" as a noun because there really is more to systematics and the language that systematists use than the codes themselves. So in the strictest possible technical sense, Brya is correct, but is holding Wikipedia to a far stricter standard than the one to which zoological and botanical systematists hold themselves. (For example there are numerous terms like "isoneotype" and "clonotype" that do not appear anywhere in the botanical code but are widely used and accepted among botanists, simply for lack of any better term.) To imply that the words "tautonym" and "tautonymy" bear no relation to each other, and must reside in separate Wikipedia articles, simply flies in the face of common sense. Combine them in one article and simply point out the technical differences in usage in the respective Codes. (Now, if anybody really cares to prove Brya wrong, I would suggest finding the word "tautonym" used in an authoritataive zoological reference, and the word "tautonymy" in an authoritative botanical reference.) MrDarwin 13:40, 23 June 2006 (UTC)Reply
I could be wrong but I'm pretty certain that the words "tautonym", "tautonymy" and "tautonymous" are pretty much unique to biological nomenclature. I've never heard of such a concept outside of biology, and in biology it refers very specifically to the formulation of species names. Thus saying that "A Tautonym is a word or term made from two identical parts or syllables, such as bon-bon, da-da, or wikiwiki" is a bit misleading as it implies that anybody other than a biologist (or somebody talking about biological nomenclature) would use the word. MrDarwin 23:36, 27 June 2006 (UTC)Reply
Well, since Brya appears to be gone for the time being and everyone else has ignored this as well for six months, I went ahead and merged the two pages. Hopefully that's it for this absurd argument, but who knows... KarlM 21:49, 13 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
How is "tautonymic names" "more inclusive" than tautonym, when -nym means name? The expression seems a tautology to me. --Hugh7 (talk) 07:42, 28 December 2017 (UTC)Reply
I really don't like the way this article reads subsequent to this edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tautonym&action=historysubmit&diff=282277617&oldid=276300380
Is there any objection at this point to reverting it to something more like it was prior to that edit? I particularly object to "An example of a botanical tautonym that does not exist is Larix larix...". This makes it sounds like Larix larix is a fictitious example contrived for illustrative purposes. As I understand it, Larix larix isn't validly published, and thus has no nomenclatural standing for priority purposes, but it is effectively published, and this name does show up in 19th century literature, as well as 20th century nomenclatural databases. Is it fair to say the ICBN defines a category (names effectively, but not validly published) that has no members because these names "don't exist"?
Additionally (and I see this has been discussed before), it seems overly pedantic to say "no tautonym exists" because the ICZN uses the term "tautonymous name" instead of "tautonym", and botanical tautonyms "don't exist". The ICBN uses the term "tautonym" in 23.4; again, going from botanical tautonyms have no nomenclatural standing to botanical tautonyms "don't exist" is quite a stretch.
"Tautoynmous names" in zoology is "more inclusive" than "tautonyms"; fine, but this comes down to a major difference between the codes. The zoological Principle of Coordination means that Gorilla gorilla is also established when somebody publishes Gorilla aus subsp. gorilla, and both are considered tautonymous names. Botany doesn't have the principle of coordination, so Larix decidua var. larix would not be a tautonym, and could be validly published (although clearly inadvisable). There doesn't really seem to be any difference in the zoological vs. botanical concept of tautonymy other than the need to accomodate the presence or absence of the Principle of Coordination. In both codes, a tautonym is identical genus+species. In zoology, we just have to remember that a subspecies name is also nomenclaturally relevant at the species rank (Species group).192.104.39.2 (talk) 15:13, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Reply