Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Retrieval from Full Text
Introduction
The remaining chapters focus on retrieval from full text, which is under-
stood as a further transformation of selection labor enabled by modern
information technologies; particular aspects of selection labor identified
by the labor theoretic approach rise to prominence. Specifically, the quan-
titative expansion in the scope of description process has transformed the
possibilities for search labor. Description processes remain syntactic and
machine-based, while search labor includes directly semantic elements
(for instance, the choice of words for search) and semantic understanding
of syntactic components (for instance, the logical combination of search
terms and understanding of the effects of description processes on the
meanings attached to words). This chapter proceeds from the concrete
to the abstract, from examples of retrieval from full text to discussions
informed by scholarly sources accepted as relevant to understanding the
semantics of written language, particularly regarding the idea of language
as a nomenclature and the insufficiency of this conception of language.
The relation of the labor theoretic approach to full text retrieval is pre-
cisely specified. Subsequent chapters develop a fuller and more positive
understanding of the semantics of written language (understood as the
transformations of meaning in the processes of description and search-
ing) and of syntax (understood as patterns of difference and replication in
words and sequences of words).
Examples
Unquiet cooccurrences
