On lexical differentiation in plant naming: The case of pastoralist societies in East Africa

The question of why people design new lexical items has been discussed in research work beyond that of linguistics. In anthropological studies on folk biology, in particular, this question relates to which and how plant taxa are named, that is, distinguished lexically. In these studies, two contrasting views have been proposed. On the 'utilitarian view', people make lexical distinctions of entities that are culturally and/or practically useful to them. Naming a plant, or an animal for that matter, is guided by the practical consequences of knowing or not knowing that biological taxon in the relevant cultural context (Hunn 1982). This position contrasts with the 'intellectualist view' proposed by Berlin (1976; 1992) according to which people name plant or animal taxa not because of their utility but rather because of their perceptual or other distinctions that the natural world reveals. This issue is taken up in the present paper by looking at six pastoralist societies in East Africa, each of which distinguishes lexically between 225 and 875 wild plants. The findings made suggest that both views mentioned are simultaneously relevant to understanding the taxonomic behavior of the societies concerned. Two contrasting principles are identified which guide people both in naming plants and in constructing folk taxonomic categories of plants. These are the perception principle and the use principle.