Information Technology Reference
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2. the second (which is also obligatory) consists of identifying the relevant
century or centuries in a chronological list of centuries (a list which is part of the
ASW thesaurus). In our example (Figure 3.5), it is the <4
th
Century> and the <3
rd
Century> B.C.;
3. the third activity (which is optional) consists of chrononymic designation of
the selected centuries which, from a certain historical point of view, form an era, an
epoch or a period. In our case, the two centuries selected form part of the epoch
which the analyst has denoted as <Pre-Moche era>.
The sequence shown in Figure 3.5 indeed constitutes a simple and robust
sequence which is often sufficient to locate a knowledge object thematized in an
audiovisual text with a certain degree of precision. However, there are a whole series
of cases where it is not sufficient, including the following four:
1.
precise chronology
: precise date (of an event), precise period (beginning, end,
duration), radiocarbon timescales, etc.;
2.
approximate, rough chronology
: unknown dates, partially known dates,
approximate indications of dates, etc.;
3.
historical periodization
: eras/epochs/periods, etc. periodization which is
variable depending on the historiographical tradition and/or on the domain (national
history, etc.);
4. finally, a
chronological term
which is a
historical term
as well (for instance,
18
th
Century French
can be interpreted both as a historical epoch and a temporal
period, etc.).
We have attempted to specify and develop a collection of sequences for
describing the temporal context of a knowledge object which enable each of these
four scenarios to be taken into account. In addition, this collection of sequences
draws the distinction between sequences which represent a simple and pre-defined
configuration (such as that represented by the sequence shown in Figure 3.5) and
more complex sequences which enable the analyst to carry out relatively fine-
grained historical pinpointing.
This, of course, is the
objective
of an analysis of an audiovisual corpus that
determines which of the sequences in question are the most appropriate to cater for
the analyst's specific needs.
