Re: What about "taxonomies"? RE: Glossary of terms relating to thesauri and faceted classification

On Sat, Feb 05, 2005 at 08:47:08PM +0000, Leonard Will wrote:
> >A 'conceptual scheme' or 'concept scheme' is defined here as: a set of 
> >concepts, optionally including statements about semantic relationships 
> >between those concepts. Thesauri, classification schemes, subject 
> >heading schemes, terminologies, glossaries and other types of 
> >controlled vocabularies are all examples of conceptual schemes.
> >
> >How does that sound?
> 
> It sounds fine to me, and as nobody has raised serious objections I have 
> added it to the glossary at 
> <http://www.willpowerinfo.co.uk/glossary.htm>. I hope that is OK.

Personally, if I were King of the Forest, I would ban the word
"scheme".  For one thing, it is simply too close to "schema",
which is almost as bad, and in overlapping but nonetheless
different ways.  At a minimum, we must acknowledge that
in practice, people get them confused all the time, myself
included.  

Assuming we have to use "scheme"...:

-- I like Aida's suggestion for "subject heading systems".

-- In http://www.willpowerinfo.co.uk/glossary.htm, there is no
   definition of "scheme" itself, though there is (analogously)
   a definition for "schedule" (which, however, I would have
   expected to read "a SET of terms...").

> I think you have to call it a "concept scheme" rather than a "conceptual 
> scheme", because the latter form makes it sound as though it is not a 
> real scheme, just a conceptual one . . .

-- Yes.  I had been vaguely uneasy with the notion that
   "concept" or "conceptual" could be used interchangeably
   here, and this comment puts the finger on why.  I would
   also prefer just "concept scheme" (assuming "scheme"
   is used at all).

Tom

-- 
Dr. Thomas Baker                        Thomas.Baker@izb.fraunhofer.de
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