I think it would be better to use schemaName.tableName.familyName.columnName kind of syntax. Basically, what ever part is most specific, you can use as the parameter name.  For example, if schemaName="foo", tableName="bar", and the others are empty or null, then it would be tableName=foo.bar.

If you could use the SchemaUtil functions to get the display name, that would be good. Maybe have another one for getColumnDisplayName