Ontologies and indeterminacy
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Bodil Nistrup Madsen
Abstract
This contribution describes some important principles that should be used when establishing terminological ontologies, and demonstrates that these principles may be used both for terminological ontologies, i.e. domain-specific ontologies, and for general language ontologies such as WordNet. In doing this, the paper argues that the principles for building ontologies should not allow indeterminacy in the resulting ontologies. The principles described here have been developed in the research and development project CAOS – Computer-Aided Ontology Structuring. CAOS is a joint research project carried out by Bodil Nistrup Madsen, Hanne Erdman Thomsen and Carl Vikner, Department of Computational Linguistics, Copenhagen Business School. The descriptions of the principles of CAOS and the examples used originate from joint papers.
Abstract
This contribution describes some important principles that should be used when establishing terminological ontologies, and demonstrates that these principles may be used both for terminological ontologies, i.e. domain-specific ontologies, and for general language ontologies such as WordNet. In doing this, the paper argues that the principles for building ontologies should not allow indeterminacy in the resulting ontologies. The principles described here have been developed in the research and development project CAOS – Computer-Aided Ontology Structuring. CAOS is a joint research project carried out by Bodil Nistrup Madsen, Hanne Erdman Thomsen and Carl Vikner, Department of Computational Linguistics, Copenhagen Business School. The descriptions of the principles of CAOS and the examples used originate from joint papers.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword xi
- Introduction – LSP studies xiii
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Indeterminacy
- Indeterminacy, context, economy and well-formedness in specialist communication 3
- Lexical chains in technical translation 15
- Eliminating indeterminacy 37
- Indeterminacy of terms and icons in software localization 49
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Indeterminacy
- Epistemological aspects of indeterminacy in postmodernist science 61
- No fixed boundaries 73
- Commensurability of scientific theories and indeterminacy of terminological concepts 93
- Concept formation and indeterminacy in the LSP of Economics 107
- Vague legal concepts 119
- Präzision versus Vagheit 135
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Indeterminacy
- Coping with indeterminacy 157
- Ontologies and indeterminacy 181
- Terminological modelling of processes 199
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Heribert Picht
- Heribert Picht 217
- Contributors 231
- Index 235
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword xi
- Introduction – LSP studies xiii
-
Indeterminacy
- Indeterminacy, context, economy and well-formedness in specialist communication 3
- Lexical chains in technical translation 15
- Eliminating indeterminacy 37
- Indeterminacy of terms and icons in software localization 49
-
Indeterminacy
- Epistemological aspects of indeterminacy in postmodernist science 61
- No fixed boundaries 73
- Commensurability of scientific theories and indeterminacy of terminological concepts 93
- Concept formation and indeterminacy in the LSP of Economics 107
- Vague legal concepts 119
- Präzision versus Vagheit 135
-
Indeterminacy
- Coping with indeterminacy 157
- Ontologies and indeterminacy 181
- Terminological modelling of processes 199
-
Heribert Picht
- Heribert Picht 217
- Contributors 231
- Index 235