Scientists, when dealing with their normative frameworks (paradigms, pet theories), use two kinds of language: nomenclature (labels) and metaphor. The technical language of nomenclature attempts to eliminate ambiguity in concepts and entities within an area of science. An excellent example in Biology is the use of scientific names for species. If a North American and a European call a bird a "robin," they are referring to two different species that are not even closely related. If, however, they both say Turdus migratorius, there is no confusion. Choosing a "dead language" for formal nomenclature helps preclude additional meanings creeping into the nomenclatural designations. Scientists who are comfortable with a given normative framework tend to embrace nomenclature as the solution to problems, which they see as mostly a matter of reducing ambiguity within a theoretical framework assumed to be fundamentally true. Those scientists tend to mistrust metaphors because they allow too many possibilities, thus introducing ambiguity into the framework.
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