Dame Edna's Indexing Language

In this section, we describe the indexing language used for the construction of the Thesaurus of Dog Show Obedience terms. The following content is included:

1. Method and Rationale
2. Relationship Structures
         equivalence
         hierachical
         associative
3. Forms of Terms

Method and Rationale

Our thesaurus was compiled using the deductive method: the first step was to collect a sufficient number of terms, and the second step was to examine the selected terms in order to find structure and to introduce a controlled vocabulary of preferred terms. Terms were assigned hierarchically within broader categories (modules) or discarded as the topic focus narrowed, and analyzed again later. Following the Practical Manual recommendation, we turned to Multites only when all relationships had been established and finalized between terms.

From our research we have determined that the terminology surrounding our topic (dog show obedience) would be organized into four large subject categories (modules). These are as follows:

1. Clubs
2. Equipment
3. Shows
4. Physical Characteristics of Dogs

For the first iteration of this project we decided to develop only terms within the Shows module, but our thesaurus has been designed to incorporate potential expansion at a future date.

Relationship Structures

equivalence | hierachical | associative | node

A thesaurus differs from unstructured vocabulary lists in that thesauri indicate the semantic relationship between terms by means of relationship indicators.

The Thesaurus of Dog Show Obedience Terms displays three kinds of semantic relationships as defined in part 5.1 of the NISO guidelines.

The three types of relationships are:

equivalence relationships (section 5.2);
hierarchical relationships (section 5.3);
associative relationships (section 5.4);

Equivalence relationships

In an equivalence relationship, two or more terms represent the same or synonymous concept. Within this type of relationship, one term must be selected as the preferred term or descriptor. The non-preferred term(s) are cross-referenced to the preferred term. This type of relationship is of three basic types: a) synonyms, b) quasi-synonyms, and c) lexical variants.

Reciprocity is indicated by the terms USE and USED FOR. The non-preferred term is indicated by the notation USE, followed by the preferred term. The preferred term takes the notation USED FOR, followed by the non-preferred term.

A typographical distinction is made between preferred and non-preferred terms, as per Thesaurus Construction and Use (Aitchinson, et.al, 2000, F1.1 p. 50 ).

Non-preferred terms are italicized in the thesaurus.

Hierarchical relationships

In a hierarchical relationship, the level of subordination and superodination is shown, where the superodination descriptor represents a class, and the subordinate descriptor refers to its members.

This basic relationship distinguishes the thesaurus from an unstructured term list, and is "an important factor in the improvement of recall and also of precision performance" (Aitchison, et al., 2000). The hierarchical relationship includes the generic relationship, the hierarchical whole-part relationship, the instance relationship, and the polyhierarchical relationship.

Reciprocity is set out in the thesaurus using the following conventions: BT (broader Term) - a label for the subordinate descriptor NT (narrower Term) - a label for the subordinate descriptor.

Associative relationships

Associative relationships are found between preferred terms that are related conceptually but not hierarchically, and are neither equivalent nor hierarchical. As such, the relationship is symmetrical.

Reciprocity between associative relationships are indicated by an RT (related term) label between preferred terms in the thesaurus.

Node labels

Node labels are used to group related terms within the thesaurus. These terms are not used as indexing terms and can be found in enclosed brackets, e.g. < commands >.

Forms of Terms

Abbreviations

In the world of show dogs, acronyms are often used for terms such as Best of Breed (BOB) and Best in Match (BIM). Both the acronym and the full term are considered correct usage. However, usage of the acronym indicates a level of inside knowledge that is most appropriate for the needs of the user. We have therefore chosen to use the acronym for the preferred term and applied them consistently throughout the thesaurus.

Aitchison recommends: "The selection of preferred terms from among possible synonyms should always be influenced by the needs of the users of the thesaurus ... Every effort should be also made to find all appropriate non-preferred synonyms for the preferred terms, in order to enrich the entry vocabulary and with it the usefulness of the thesaurus as a recall improvement device."

Following section 3.6.3.1 of the NISO standard and Practical Manual recommendations, cross-references have been made from the full forms to the acronyms as required.

Capitalization

Descriptors are displayed in lower-case characters in most instances. Places where deviations were made include initialisms (3.6.8) e.g. BIM, BOB, and dog show titles (3.6.8).

Compound Terms

As compound and multiword terms are commonly used in dog show literature, we have decided to use these terms as single descriptors within the thesaurus. These terms are often times ambiguous when split (4.2.a) e.g. "heel wide", or a part of a whole (4.3.2.1) e.g. "bar jump".

Singular and Plural Forms

In general we have followed the NISO guidelines in the use of singular and plural forms. Descriptors that fall under the "how many" rule (3.5.1) will be found in the plural form, e.g. orders, commands, and penalties. Descriptors that fall under the "how much" rule (3.5.2) will be found in the singular form, e.g. pacing.

In many cases we chose singular forms based on user warrant (3.6.1). For example, the descriptor "bar jump" would fit under the "how many" rule as plural, but in all literature regarding the descriptor it was used in the singular form. This is because the term "Bar jump" cannot be represented by jumps in general because it is a specific action or type of jump that dog performs. This term is known and will be sought by our users as a "bar jump", and is therefore stated in the thesaurus in its singular form.