yellow pages

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/23/2006 01:17 PM, you wrote:
>it occurred to me yesterday to look in the yellow pages of my phone
>book to see what heading(s) athletic shoes (sneakers, whatever) are
>listed under.  the yellow pages present a taxonomy of people and
>organizations providing goods and services, and a vocabulary to go
>along with this taxonomy.  it's a specialized vocabulary, supplying a
>single high-register term for each taxon; every so often i've had to
>explain to a foreign student that if you're looking for a doctor, you
>have to look under Physicians, for cars under Automobiles, for drug
>stores under Pharmacies, etc.

And as a "foreign student" -- actually just a visitor, on a business
trip -- I had exactly the same problem with the yellow pages in an
unnamed city (it was Milan).  I could think of just one Italian word
for the category I wanted, but it was not the one of the Milan yellow
pages taxonomy.

Joel

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