Terminology and technology
-
Upload
nick-crofts -
Category
Education
-
view
217 -
download
3
description
Transcript of Terminology and technology
The evolving relationship between Terminology and Technology
Nicholas CroftsChair ICOM CIDOC
Rio de Janeiro August 2013
Premises
1. Words are a special case of signs or symbols• “any means of expression accepted in a society rests
in principle upon a collective habit, or on convention”Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics
• Signifier (1,n) signifies (0,n) Signified
Premises
1. “For a large class of cases—though not for all—in which we employ the word ‘meaning’ it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language”Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
• Naming is one type of use • Not all uses involve naming…
– and, but, although, however, usually, therefore…– Functional and performative words
Premises
1. Terms are a subclass of names :– Generic names– Proper names
• Terminology = an organized system of names• A “term” is a name used in a terminology• Term (1,1) signifies (0,n) Signified
Themes
• Historical development of “terminology”• Terms and Concepts• Internal and External representation
(technical view vs end user view)
Phases of terminology
1. Pre terminological2. Terminological3. Automation
a) Codes for conceptsb) Container / contentc) Post-terminology
1. Pre-terminological
• Socrates …– what is beauty?– what is truth?...
• not a terminology debate• not a system of terms• focus is on concepts, the signified• Words have ambiguous relations with concepts…• 1 word means many things, 1 thing represented
by many words
Jacques-Louis David, La mort de Socrate
2. Terminological
• 18th Century …– Enyclopaedias, dictionaries
• Carl von Linné (Linneus)– System of botanical taxonomy– Systematic classification
• Taxon = a class of objects, not an individual.
• Unambiguous representation 1 term means 1 thing
• Term is an identifier
Linnaea borealis (twinflower)
3. Automated terminology
• Data = propositions represented in a machine processable form
Phase 1. Codes = concepts
• Internal representation = external representation
• Non human-readable form• Code book needed for
interpretation• Dewey decimal classification• Totally unambiguous• No misleading connotations• Language neutral
Phase 2: Container/content model
• “it is important that each user employ the same terms to designate the same type of objects, hence the usefulness of creating a standard vocabulary…”Africom Handbook of Standards
• Machine readable and human readable…
• CIDOC terminology standards WG• Getty AAT, TGN, ULAN
Elings, M.W. and Waibel, G. Metadata for all…
Drawbacks
• Developing a terminology is hard work– AAT 15 year period
• Inflexible, when terms evolve• Natural language is polysemic and
ambiguous – Terminology is unnatural language
• Experts’ mind set– Steve project revealed 86% mismatch
http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/files/trantSteveResearchReport2008.pdf
• Barriers to discovery
Phase 3. Post terminology
• Internal representation = codes• User view = words• RDF – SKOS• Multiple discovery paths• Language neutral• Terminology control
unnecessary
Sports reference example
Ontology model
took place at
had durationPeriod
Place
had member
had participantActor Event
Individual Group
52 classes
~500’000 named entities
Still plenty of work…
• Concept management =/= terminology angst