Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
As Figure 11.3 shows, the vocabulary of conceptual terms denoting the
analytical procedures can, in turn, be broken down into four more specialized
branches whose root terms are as follows:
‒
[Procedure of structural analysis of the textual object];
‒
[Procedure of analysis of the textual object using the ASW thesaurus];
‒
[Procedure of analysis of the textual object using a reference external to the
ASW environment];
‒
[Procedure of pragmatic analysis of the textual object].
Together, these four branches form the canonic basis of analytical activities in
the ASW universe of discourse. We shall discuss them in greater detail in
Chapter 14.
Thus, together, the two vocabularies [Object of analysis] and [Procedure of
analysis] make up the meta-lexicon of conceptual terms of the
ASW universe of
discourse
. The
ASW universe of discourse
means that it forms a knowledge space
which possesses its own structure, its own rules, its own “grammar”. This is not the
only universe of discourse, of course - there may be any number of such spaces. An
important goal is to render the ASW environment sufficiently general and open so
that it can accommodate the universes of discourse of archives other than those
examined here.
11.4.TheASWthesaurus
The ASW thesaurus is a
controlled vocabulary
of standardized terms and
linguistic expressions which form the predefined values (instances or referents) of
the generic conceptual terms in the ASW meta-lexicon. As we know, the
ASW thesaurus is made up of a set of
facets
and (hierarchical) lists of
standardized
expressions
(
descriptors
), each of which belongs to one or more facets. A facet, for
its part, forms a
semantic axis
or a
dimension of the content
(i.e. of the meaning in
the structuralist sense of the term) of a conceptual term.
A standardized expression of a facet thus represents a
possible value
, an instance
or a referent of the conceptual term which has the same meaning as that facet. For
instance, one of the facets of the conceptual term [Country] is
All the countries of
the world at the start of the 21
st
Century
. This facet is made up of the list of all
countries recognized by the international community (not only by the UN). Thus, in
addition to the 194 countries officially recognized by the UN, the ASW micro-
thesaurus (i.e.
facet+hierarchicallistofstandardizedexpressions
)
All thecountries
