Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Yet beyond its obvious identifying function, a thesaurus can also serve other
very important functions in the description of an audiovisual text or corpus.
Figure10.4.
Classificationofanexpressionenteredusingamicro-thesaurus
Let us mention the fact that it may also fulfill the central function of all human
activity - classification. As we know, classification in the sense of a social practice
is indispensable, not only for the (always relative) mastery of a man's pertinent
environment, but also to distinguish him from the others and give him an identity
(on this point, we refer the reader to Claude Lévi-Strauss and his masterpiece
TheSavageMind
[LÉV 66]). Thus, when we speak of the function of classification
which the thesaurus fulfills in the procedure of controlled description, we are not
thinking only of so-called scientific classifications (e.g. in biology or linguistics)
which can be used, exploited in the context of an analysis of an audiovisual corpus,
but also of the various ethno-socio-taxonomies,
folksonomies
, etc. After all, the
analysis of an audiovisual corpus can perfectly well be conceived of and carried out
in terms of the particular knowledge and beliefs of a group, a community, or to a
given era.
