Thesaurus

Thesaurus.

A thesaurus is a list of words or terms used to represent concepts.

It comes from the Latin thesaurus ('treasure'), and this in turn from the classical Greek thēsaurós (θησαυρός, 'storehouse&# 39;, 'treasury'). It is used in literature such as thesaurus, thesauri or treasure to refer to dictionaries, such as the Treasure of the Castilian or Spanish language by Sebastián de Covarrubias, from 1611.

It acquires at least two related meanings, in the field of literature and in the field of library or information science.

Regarding the legal, databases are used which focus on building search systems to order content and generate linguistic instruments, all of this in relation to and direct support by thesaurus. It would be conceptualized as a system with which the classification and ordering of texts and documents is sought, following parameters of hierarchy, inclusion, order. As for this, the thesaurus operates on three levels:

• Identifying legal notions that are requested, with appropriate descriptors.
• Use synonymous or similar terms regarding requests.
• Exclude redundant, non-transcendent notions.

History

Peter Mark Roget, author of Roget Thesaurus

In ancient times, Philo of Byblos was the author of the first text that could now be called thesaurus. In Sanskrit, the Amarakosha is a thesaurus in verse form, written in the IV century.

The study of synonyms became an important topic in the philosophy of the 18th century, and Condillac wrote, but never published, a thesaurus.

Some of the earliest thesauruses are:

• John Wilkins, An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language and Alphabetical Dictionary (1668) are a "regular enumeration and description of all things and notions to which names must be assigned." They are not explicitly synonym dictionaries - in fact, they do not even use the word "synonym"- but they do group synonyms.
• Gabriel Girard (priest), La Justesse de la langue françoise, ou les différentes significations des mots qui passent pour synonymes (1718)
• John Trusler, The Difference between Words esteemed Synonyms, in the English Language; and the proper choice of them determined (1766).
• Hester Lynch Piozzi, British Synonym (1794)
• James Leslie, Dictionary of the Synonymous Words and Technical Terms in the English Language (1806).
• George Crabb (writer), Español Synonyms Explained (1818).

Roget's Thesaurus, first compiled in 1805 by Peter Mark Roget and published in 1852, follows John Wilkins' 1668 semantic arrangement. Unlike earlier thesaurus, does not include definitions nor is it intended to help the user choose between synonyms. It has been in uninterrupted print since 1852 and is still in wide use throughout the English-speaking world.Roget described his thesaurus in the foreword to the first edition:

It has been almost fifty years since I first designed a verbal classification system similar to that which serves as the basis for this work. Conceiving that such a compilation could help to fill my own shortcomings, in the year 1805 I completed a classified catalogue of small-scale words, but on the same principle, and almost in the same way, that the Thesaurus now published.

In literature

Thesaurus is a list of synonymous words with similar meanings, usually accompanied by another list of antonyms. An example would be a thesaurus dedicated to a specialized field, which contains the jargon used in that field of knowledge. In the English-speaking world, the Roget's Thesaurus (published in 1852) is classic, whose function is, according to its author, in addition to helping the writer find the word that best expresses his thought, also stimulate your intellect and suggest related words or ideas.

In library and information sciences

Knowledge is organized with a view to carrying out a terminological standardization that allows improving the access and communication channel between users and the Information Units (understood information unit as: library, archive or center documentation). The first thesaurus in the English language, published in 1852, was compiled by Peter Mark Roget. The Thesaurus has a linguistic representation sign, a controlled vocabulary and a post-coordinate syntax. Although in traditional practice one speaks of uniterms, currently great variations have been made, incorporating compound terms or descriptors, that is, descriptors that are made up of two or more words.

Refers to an alphabetically arranged lexicon of terms comprising the specialized vocabulary of an academic discipline or field of study, showing the logical and semantic relationships between terms, particularly a list of subject headings or descriptors used as preferred terms to index the literature in the field.

The terms that make up the thesaurus are interrelated among themselves under three relationship modalities:

1. Hierarchical relations: Establish subdivisions that generally reflect TODO/Part structures.
2. equivalence relations: Control the synonym, homonimia, antonimia and polysemia between the terms.
3. Associative relations: Improve recovery strategies and help to reduce poly-hierarchy between terms.

It is an intermediary between the language that we find in documents (natural language) and the one used by specialists in a certain field of knowledge (controlled language). Although it does include them, thesaurus entries should not be considered just a list of synonyms.

Content

Broadly speaking, a thesaurus comprises the following:

• A list of preferred terms, sorted alphabetical, thematic and hierarchical.
• A list of synonyms of those preferred terms, called descriptorswith the legend "usse (preferential term)" or a similar indication.
• A hierarchy or relationship between the terms. This is expressed with the identification of "general terms" and "more specific terms".
• Definitions of the terms, in case of ambiguity, to facilitate the selection of the same by the user
• And a set of rules to use the thesaurus.

You can set a depth of the hierarchy, indicated by levels of importance from the preferred levels. The greater the depth, the greater the specificity.

Descriptors

A descriptor is each of the terms or expressions chosen from a set of synonyms or quasi-synonyms to represent (as preferred term) generally unequivocally, a concept likely to appear with some frequency in indexable documents, and in the inquiries that are made. The descriptor normally corresponds to the label of a concept, and it is the minimum unit of meaning that integrates a thesaurus or a list of descriptors. It is usually accompanied by a scope note or, less usually, by a definition in cases where the mere registration of the term can cause ambiguity problems in its interpretation. The descriptor is the term by which it will actually be indexed (for this reason it is also called an indexing term), and by which the documents referring to its theme will be retrieved.

Organization

Conceptual

Roget's original thesaurus was organized into 1000 concept heads (eg, 806 Debt) arranged in a four-level taxonomy. For example, debt is classified as V.ii.iv:

Class five, Volition: the exercise of the will

Division two: Social volition

Section 4: Potential relations

Subsection 4: pecuniary relations.

Each epigraph includes direct synonyms: Debt, obligation, responsibility,...; Related concepts: interest, usage, usury; related persons: debtor, debtor,... defaulter (808); verbs: be in debt, duty,... see borrow (788); phrases: run an invoice or account,...; and adjectives: indebted, indebted, owing,... The numbers in parentheses are cross references to other heads.

The book begins with a Tabular Synopsis of Categories establishing the hierarchy, then the main body of the thesaurus listed by Head, and then an alphabetical index listing the different Heads a word can be found under: "forced", "subject to", 177; "debt", 806; "duty", 926.

Some recent versions have kept the same organization, though often with more detail under each Head. Others have made modest changes, such as removing the four-level taxonomy and adding new heads: one has 1075 Heads in fifteen Classes.

Some non-English thesauri have also adopted this model.

In addition to its taxonomic organization, the Historical Thesaurus of English (2009) includes the date on which each word came to have a certain meaning. It has the novel and unique aim of "tracing the semantic development of the enormous and varied vocabulary of English".

The different senses of a word are listed separately. For example, three different senses of "debt" They appear in three different places in the taxonomy:

A sum of money that is owed; a responsibility or obligation to pay

Society

Trade and finance

Money management

Insolvency

Indebtedness [substantive]

An immaterial debt; an obligation to do something

Society

Morality

Duty or obligation

[sighs]

An offense requiring atonement (figurative, biblical)

Society

Fe

Aspects of faith

Spirituality

Sin

[sighs]

instance

Alphabetical

Other thesauri and thesauruses are arranged alphabetically.

Most repeat the list of synonyms under each word.

Some designate a main entrance for each concept and cross it.

A third system intersperses conceptual words and epigraphs. Francis March's Thesaurus Dictionary gives for responsibility: CONTINGENCY, CREDIT-DEBT, DUTY-RIGHT, FREEDOM-SUBJECT, MONEY, each of which is a conceptual heading. The article CREDIT-DEBT has multiple subheadings, including agent nouns, verbs, verb expressions, etc. . Synonyms with brief definitions are listed under each, for example. "Credit". Transfer of ownership under promise of future payment". The conceptual headings are not organized in a taxonomy.

Benjamin Lafaye's book Synonymes français (1841) is organized around families of synonyms (for example logis, logement), and his Dictionnaire des synonymes de la langue française (1858) is mostly alphabetical, but also includes a section for morphologically related synonyms, which is organized by prefix, suffix, or construction.

Contrasting senses

Before Roget, most thesauruses and thesauruses included discussions of the differences between quasi-synonyms, as do some modern ones.

The Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms is an independent dictionary of modern English thesauruses that does discuss the differences. In addition, many general English dictionaries include synonym notes.

Several modern French thesaurus dictionaries are mainly devoted to discussing the precise demarcations between synonyms.

Additional Elements

Some include short definitions.

Some give illustrative sentences.

Some include lists of objects within the category (hyponyms), for example dog breeds.

Example of using a modified thesaurus

Part of the alphabetical section of a printed thesaurus is reproduced here. Note that the preferred terms are capitalized (in this case, the word "AUTOMOBILE"):

Car: Use Car

Automata

Automation

AUTOMOVL

More general term: means of transport

Submitted Term(s):

sedan

coupé

field

Bike

Truck

Car: Use Cartoon

Car: Use Car

Motorcycle

etc.

In the thesaurus thematic section, we will find the topics grouped, usually from the most general to the most specific:

Transport means

Land transportation

Automobile

sedan

coupé

field

Air transportation

Means of maritime transport

It should be taken into account that thesauri do not have to be complete, in the sense of covering all knowledge. They are generally limited to a specific subject area, and from a certain angle in particular. Thus, there are innumerable specific thesauri. As an example of these, we can cite the Industrial Property Thesaurus (in Spanish), the MeSH or medical subject headings (in English), and Agrovoc (multilingual thesaurus of agricultural terms).

Strictly speaking, it is not the function of a thesaurus to define words (this function is typical of the dictionary or glossary). However, many thesauri contain definitions of the terms they use, so that the user of the thesaurus is not in doubt when selecting a term.

It must be taken into account that there has been a great change with the appearance of the possibility of digital thesauri, because hierarchies and relationships mean that many limitations of printed thesauri have disappeared. For example, it is possible to look up the terms in a thesaurus almost instantly using a search engine, or simply traverse online hierarchies, or use the function to "map" to the preferred term automatically, with the user entering the term in language natural, being the computer program the one that relates this term with the list of preferred terms, and later performs the search in the database using the preferred terms.

General use works

• Thesaurus of UNESCO (Controlled and structured list of terms for thematic analysis and the search for documents and publications in the fields of education, culture, natural sciences, social and human sciences, communication and information. Continuously expanded and updated, its multidisciplinary terminology reflects the evolution of UNESCO programmes and activities).
• Thesaurus of English Words " Phrases (ed. P. Roget); ISBN 0-06-272037-6
• Webster's New World Thesaurus (ed. C. Laird); ISBN 0-671-51983-2
• Oxford American Desk Thesaurus (ed. C. Lindberg); ISBN 0-19-512674-2
• Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier; ISBN 0-679-40030-3, an unusual combination of thesaurus, dictionary and glossary

Examples of specialized thesauri

• DeCS - Descriptors in Health Sciences (BIREME)
• Evaluation Thesaurus (de M. Scriven); ISBN 0-8039-4364-4
• Great Song Thesaurus (from R. Lax and F. Smith); ISBN 0-19-505408-3
• Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (APA); ISBN 1-55798-775-0
• Clinician's Thesaurus(from E.Zuckerman); ISBN 1-57230-569-X
• FAO's Multilingual Agricultural Thesaurus: [1] and [2] (breakable link available on the Internet Archive; see history, first version and last).
• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
• Thesaurus of Musical Instruments