TY - JOUR

T1 - Control and Syntagmatization

T2 - Vocabulary Requirements in Information Retrieval Thesauri and Natural Language Lexicons

AU - Engerer, Volkmar Paul

PY - 2017/2/27

Y1 - 2017/2/27

N2 - This paper explores the relationships between naturallanguage lexicons in lexical semantics and thesauri ininformation retrieval research. These different areas ofknowledge have different restrictions on use of vocabu-lary; thesauri are used only in information search andretrieval contexts, whereas lexicons are mental systemsand generally applicable in all domains of life. A set ofvocabulary requirements that defines the more concretecharacteristics of vocabulary items in the two contextscan be derived from this framework: lexicon items haveto be learnable, complex, transparent, etc., whereas the-saurus terms must be effective, current and relevant,searchable, etc. The differences in vocabulary proper-ties correlate with two other factors, the well-knowndimension of Control (deliberate, social activities ofbuilding and maintaining vocabularies), and Syntagma-tization, which is less known and describes vocabularyitems’ varying formal preparedness to exit the thesau-rus/lexicon, enter into linear syntactic constructions,and, finally, acquire communicative functionality. It isproposed that there is an inverse relationship betweenControl and Syntagmatization.

AB - This paper explores the relationships between naturallanguage lexicons in lexical semantics and thesauri ininformation retrieval research. These different areas ofknowledge have different restrictions on use of vocabu-lary; thesauri are used only in information search andretrieval contexts, whereas lexicons are mental systemsand generally applicable in all domains of life. A set ofvocabulary requirements that defines the more concretecharacteristics of vocabulary items in the two contextscan be derived from this framework: lexicon items haveto be learnable, complex, transparent, etc., whereas the-saurus terms must be effective, current and relevant,searchable, etc. The differences in vocabulary proper-ties correlate with two other factors, the well-knowndimension of Control (deliberate, social activities ofbuilding and maintaining vocabularies), and Syntagma-tization, which is less known and describes vocabularyitems’ varying formal preparedness to exit the thesau-rus/lexicon, enter into linear syntactic constructions,and, finally, acquire communicative functionality. It isproposed that there is an inverse relationship betweenControl and Syntagmatization.

U2 - 10.1002/asi.23783

DO - 10.1002/asi.23783

M3 - Journal article

VL - 68

SP - 1480

EP - 1490

JO - American Society for Information Science and Technology. Journal

JF - American Society for Information Science and Technology. Journal

SN - 2330-1635

IS - 6

ER -