SOME PROPERTIES OF RELATIONSHIPS IN THE STRUCTURE OF INDEXING LANGUAGES
| Pages | 390-404 |
| Date | 01 April 1973 |
| Published date | 01 April 1973 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026565 |
| Author | E.J. COATES |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
PROGRESS IN DOCUMENTATION:
SOME PROPERTIES OF RELATIONSHIPS IN THE STRUCTURE OF
INDEXING LANGUAGES
E. J. COATES
British Technology
Index,
London
This discussion treats relational analysis
as
an alternative to the 'categorical'
view of syntactic structures in indexing. It is suggested that the relational
characterization of syntactic structures by reference to the meaning of the
spaces between constituent terms may point the way to classification
structures which are stable to new knowledge and discipline-independent.
Conversely the meaning-protecting role of disciplinary domains has in the
past relegated relational ideas to a peripheral significance in classification
structures.
General properties of syntactic
strings,
logical articulation, disarticulation,
and linearization of branching relationships are discussed, together with the
role of relational symbolism as noise in significant-word based searches.
Attention is next given to certain derivative relations which arise out of an
inclusion relation between an isolated concept and the relation-linked
combination of which it forms
a
part. One class of these derivative relations
is
an explicit syntactic relation and its affiliation to other syntactic relations
may throw light on the little understood nature and development of the
content of personality facets.
RELATIONSHIPS, RELATORS, and the relational approach in indexing
languages
have,
in one form or another, been with
us
for some considerable
time.
Generally their role has been a minor one. While larger and appar-
ently more central issues were considered and debated, relationships have
been mere presences on the sidelines, not visibly involved with the questions
of weightier import.
This situation changed in the 1950's. Relational analysis broke into the
centre of the picture in the shape of J.
E.
L.
Farradane's1,2 system of indexing
syntax. At the first encounter this system was felt by many to be a break-
through in depth, a decisive escape from, or perhaps fulfilment of, certain
ideas in subject indication, themselves only recently new and liberating but
already beginning to become worn grooves. The passage of time has
not changed this impression of Farradane's system, despite
its
fairly obvious
limitations in having absolutely nothing to say on such vital matters as
control of vocabulary and inclusion relation, and despite one's necessary
reservations on its background epistemology. Possibly it
is in
the completely
390
To continue reading
Request your trial