Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 15
The ASW Thesaurus
15.1.Introduction
We have already stressed the central role of the thesaurus in the metalinguistic
device, ASW, many times. Among other things, its importance lies in the fact that it
enables us to maintain the
meta-lexiconofconceptualterms*
(of
objectsofanalysis*
and
activities of analysis*
) at a fairly high level of generality; to ensure it contains a
great many terms, while being able to give an account not only of the referential
specificities of the
universe of discourse*
of this-or-that archive, but also of the
viewpoints and therefore the various classifications (the various “folksonomies”) of
objects of analysis in a given universe of discourse.
In addition, the thesaurus is an indispensable tool for the
procedure of controlled
description*
which, as we know, constitutes one of the two procedures for the basic
description of an audiovisual text or corpus.
Since we have already examined the most important aspects of the ASW
thesaurus (in particular, see Chapter 10 as well as sections 11.4 and 14.4), here we
shall content ourselves with giving a general overview of its organization and
operation.
Section 15.2 reiterates the place and function of the thesaurus in the ASW
metalinguistic system.
Section 15.3 gives a more in-depth treatment of a central aspect in the
construction and internal function of the ASW thesaurus, which is that of the facets,
interpreted here in the sense of a
semantic feature
- a
classeme
, to borrow a concept
