The Topicality of Roget’s Thesaurus after 150 years

1. The Topicality of Roget’s Thesaurus after 150 years L. John old Faculty of Engineering and Computing Edinburgh Napier University

2. Dr Werner Hüllen, Professor Emeritus of English Linguistics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, 1927-2008.Hüllen, Werner (2004). A History of Roget's Thesaurus: Origins, Development, and Design. Oxford University Press. Bishop Wilkins Abbé Girard Hester Lynch Piozzi (Mrs Thrale)

3. Provided the publisher/editor keeps adding modern terms, Roget’s isalways current because it reflects the way our minds work, not just the beliefs and word-associations of a retired Victorian doctor. topicality, contemporaneousness, contemporaneity, currency, currentness, modernity, nowness, presentness, up-to-datedness (UK), up-to-dateness (US)

4. We owe a greater debt to mental illness than is commonly recognized. An inmate in an asylum for the criminally insane made important contributions to the Oxford English Dictionary. The eminent lexicographer Samuel Johnson exhibited “odd compulsions, such as pausing to touch every lamppost as he walked down Fleet Street,” [Kendall] … Peter Mark Roget, exhibited obsessive­compulsive behavior more than a century before his diagnosis was coined. Evidently, people with mental illness are gravely at risk for compiling language­reference books. Barbara Wallraff, The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2008 – from a review of The Man Who Made Lists, the biography of Peter Mark Roget, authored by Joshua Kendall (2008)

5. Roget • Helped establish the Manchester Medical School; the Northern Dispensary (were he treated patients free for eighteen years); • Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the London Institute; • Examiner of Physiology in the University of London; • 1831 Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians • Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815, -- secretary of the organization until he retired from the position in 1848. • Fellow of the Geological Society, • Member of the Senate of the University of London, • Founder member of the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge. • Invented the log-log slide rule the main method of calculation for engineers until the calculator and computer. • Published several treatises, mostly on physiology, but some on electricity, galvanism, magnetism and electromagnetism; • Wrote in English, French, German, and Latin;

6. Roget • Developed a pocket chessboard (Dutch, 1962, xviii); • His paper “Explanation of an Optical Deception in the Appearance of the Spokes of a Wheel Seen Through Vertical Apertures,” is regarded as seminal by modern historians of the cinema. (Winchester, 2001, p.2) • Roget also set chess problems for the Illustrated London News; contributed sections totalling 300,000 words to the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; and led the commission that studied London’s water supply, “recommending the idea of sand filtration - a method that is in use to this day” (Sabbage, 2001, para. 10). • In 1852, at the age of 73, he first published his “Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition,” and spent the next 17 years revising and adding to it. • He died in1869, at the age of ninety. His son, John Lewis Roget, took over from him as editor of the thesaurus, and Roget’s grandson, Samuel Romilly Roget, from him in turn. • Samuel Johnson, Charles Babbage, Darwin’s grandfather, Jeremy Bentham, Sir Samuel Romilly …

7. “it is impossible we should ever thoroughly understand the nature of the signs, unless we first properly consider and arrange the things signified” John Horne Tooke, 1786, Epea Pteroenta (Winged Words) -- as cited by Roget

8. Hierarchy Sense Index Roget’s Thesaurus Conceptual Hierarchy • Class • Roman sub-class (R-Class) • Letter sub-class (L-Class) • Category • Paragraph: [POS] • Sense: {Entry, entry, entry, ... [Crossref]} (Word Index)

9. Under the Hierarchy: words are polysemous (word+sense)

10. Conceptual Hierarchy - Senses of “over” (11 of 22) Abstract Relations Relation Quantity Order Number Time Power Absolute Relation Comparitive Quantity Conjunctive Quantity Whole- someness Consecutive Order Indeterminate Number Absolute Time Relative Time Power in General Addition 40 Posteriority 117 Impotence 157 Relation 9 Superiority 36 Completeness 56 End 70 Repetition 103 Time 105 Remainder 43 The Past 119

11. “penumbra” Adv. from top to bottom &c. (completely) [See Completeness]. on high, high up, high -- aloof, aloft -- upward, upwards, up -- o'er, over, overhead, above -- over head and ears, above one's head -- skyward, in the clouds, airward, in the air -- upstairs, abovestairs -- tiptoe, on tiptoe -- on stilts -- on the shoulders of The problem with a topical thesaurus is that two look-ups are required, first on an alphabetical list and again in the thesaurus proper, thus doubling a user’s search time. (Miller et al., p. 3)

12. Other revisers than those in the Roget’s family have consistently misinterpreted this volume as a book of synonyms and antonyms and have rearranged it or alphabetised it in the hope of making this [the fact that it is a synonymy] clear. (Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms, Introduction, 1942, xvii) outwitv.t. oval, adj. over, adv. & prep. –adv. past, across, by; again; beyond; extra, above, more, remaining, left. –prep. On, above. See END, OPPOSITION, REPETITION, SUPERIORITY. overawe … overbalance …

13. Over Senses – Roget’s International Thesaurus (1962) Verb.1. end, terminate, determine, close, finish, conclude, finish up, wind up; all over, all up, all U.P. 2. recover, rally, revive, return, get well, get over, get the better of, pull through, pull round, pull around, come round, come around, get round, get around, come back, make a comeback, get up, get about, get back in shape, be oneself again. Adjective.1. superior, greater, better, major, higher, upper, above; exceeding, beyond, past, more than, in advance of, over and above, over the mark, above the mark, above par. 2. remaining, surviving, left, leftover, remanent, odd. 3. blown over, exploded, forgotten, extinct, no more, irrecoverable, never to return, past, gone, by, gone-by, bygone, bypast, ago, agone, departed, passed, passed away, elapsed, lapsed, expired, run out. 4. above, supra; above, o'er, overhead. 5. remaining, unused, leftover, over and above, in addition, to boot, extra, spare, supernumerary; overly, overmuch, too much; in excess of, beyond, past, above, over and above, extra, overplus. Adverb. 1. additionally, in addition, also, and also, and all, and so, as well, too, else, beside, besides, to boot, into the bargain, at that, on top of, above, over and above, past, beyond, plus, overplus, extra, on the side, more, moreover, au reste, farther, further, furthermore, then, again, yet, similarly, likewise, by the same token, by the same sign. 2. throughout, all out, clear out, all over, over all, inside and out, through and through, through thick and thin, down to the ground, from the ground up, from the word go, to the end, to the end of the chapter, at full length, in extensor. 3. again, over again, once more, two times, twice over, ditto. 4. through, throughout, throughout the course of, for the period of. 5. upside down, topsy-turvy. Preposition.1. here and there on, here and there in, roundabout, through, all through, throughout. 2. past, across. 3. o'er, above, on top of, on, upon.

14. Verb.1. end, terminate, determine, close, finish, conclude, finish up, wind up; all over, all up, all U.P. 2. recover, rally, revive, return, get well, get over, get the better of, pull through, pull round, pull around, come round, come around, get round, get around, come back, make a comeback, get up, get about, get back in shape, be oneself again. Adjective.1. superior, greater, better, major, higher, upper, above; exceeding, beyond, past, more than, in advance of, over and above, over the mark, above the mark, above par. 2.remaining, surviving, left, leftover, remanent, odd. 3. blown over, exploded, forgotten, extinct, no more, irrecoverable, never to return, past, gone, by, gone-by, bygone, bypast, ago, agone, departed, passed, passed away, elapsed, lapsed, expired, run out. 4.above, supra; above, o'er, overhead. 5.remaining, unused, leftover, over and above, in addition, to boot, extra, spare, supernumerary; overly, overmuch, too much; in excess of, beyond, past, above, over and above, extra, overplus. Adverb. 1. additionally, in addition, also, and also, and all, and so, as well, too, else, beside, besides, to boot, into the bargain, at that, on top of, above, over and above, past, beyond, plus, overplus, extra, on the side, more, moreover, au reste, farther, further, furthermore, then, again, yet, similarly, likewise, by the same token, by the same sign. 2.throughout, all out, clear out, all over, over all, inside and out, through and through, through thick and thin, down to the ground, from the ground up, from the word go, to the end, to the end of the chapter, at full length, in extensor. 3.again, over again, once more, two times, twice over, ditto. 4.through, throughout, throughout the course of, for the period of. 5. upside down, topsy-turvy. Preposition.1. here and there on, here and there in, roundabout, through, all through, throughout.2.past, across. 3.o'er, above, on top of, on, upon.

15. Senses of “over” with shared words (Roget’s International Thesaurus, 1962)

16. Senses of “above” with shared words (Roget’s International Thesaurus, 1962)

17. Roget’s Thesaurus (1911) Word Index

18. 206. Height; N. height, altitude, elevation; eminence, pitch; loftiness &c. adj.; sublimity. tallness &c. adj.; stature, procerity; prominence &c. [See Convexity]. colossus &c. (size) [See Size]; giant, grenadier, giraffe, camelopard. mount, mountain; hill alto, butte [U.S.], monticle, fell, knap; cape; headland, foreland; promontory; ridge, hog's back, dune; rising ground, vantage ground; down; moor, moorland; Alp; uplands, highlands; heights &c. (summit) [See Summit]; knoll, hummock, hillock, barrow, mound, mole; steeps, bluff, cliff, craig, tor, peak, pike, clough; escarpment, edge, ledge, brae; dizzy height. ceiling &c. (covering) [See Covering]. high water; high tide, flood tide, spring tide. altimetry &c. (angel) [See Angularity]; batophobia. satellite, spy-in-the-sky. V. be high &c. adj.; tower, soar, command; hover, hover over, fly over; orbit, be in orbit; cap, culminate; overhang, hang over, impend, beetle, bestride, ride, mount; perch, surmount; cover &c. [See Covering]; overtop &c. (be superior) [See Superiority]; stand on tiptoe. become high &c. adj.; grow higher, grow taller; upgrow; rise &c. (ascend) [See Ascent]; send into orbit. render high &c. adj.; heighten &c. (elevate) [See Elevation]. Adj. high, elevated, eminent, exalted, lofty, tall; gigantic &c. (big) [See Size]; Patagonian; towering, beetling, soaring, hanging (gardens); elevated &c. [See Elevation]; upper; highest &c. (topmost) [See Summit]; high reaching, insessorial, perching. upland, moorland; hilly, knobby [U.S.]; mountainous, alpine, subalpine, heaven kissing; cloudtopt, cloudcapt, cloudtouching; aerial. overhanging &c. v.; incumbent, overlying, superincumbent, supernatant, superimposed; prominent &c. v. [See Convexity]. tall as a maypole, tall as a poplar, tall as a steeple, lanky &c. (thin) [See Narrowness, thinness]. Adv. on high, high up, aloft, up, above, aloof, overhead; airwind; upstairs, abovestairs; in the clouds; on tiptoe, on stilts, on the shoulders of; over head and ears; breast high. over, upwards; from top to bottom &c. (completely) [See Completeness]. Phr. e meglio cader dalle finistre che dal tetto [It]. Roget’s Thesaurus (1911)

19. 206. Height; N. height, altitude, elevation; eminence, pitch; loftiness &c. adj.; sublimity. tallness &c. adj.; stature, procerity; prominence &c. [See Convexity]. colossus &c. (size) [See Size]; giant, grenadier, giraffe, camelopard. mount, mountain; hill alto, butte [U.S.], monticle, fell, knap; cape; headland, foreland; promontory; ridge, hog's back, dune; rising ground, vantage ground; down; moor, moorland; Alp; uplands, highlands; heights &c. (summit) [See Summit]; knoll, hummock, hillock, barrow, mound, mole; steeps, bluff, cliff, craig, tor, peak, pike, clough; escarpment, edge, ledge, brae; dizzy height. ceiling &c. (covering) [See Covering]. high water; high tide, flood tide, spring tide. altimetry &c. (angel) [See Angularity]; batophobia. satellite, spy-in-the-sky. V. be high &c. adj.; tower, soar, command; hover, hover over, fly over; orbit, be in orbit; cap, culminate; overhang, hang over, impend, beetle, bestride, ride, mount; perch, surmount; cover &c. [See Covering]; overtop &c. (be superior) [See Superiority]; stand on tiptoe. become high &c. adj.; grow higher, grow taller; upgrow; rise &c. (ascend) [See Ascent]; send into orbit. render high &c. adj.; heighten &c. (elevate) [See Elevation]. Adj. high, elevated, eminent, exalted, lofty, tall; gigantic &c. (big) [See Size]; Patagonian; towering, beetling, soaring, hanging (gardens); elevated &c. [See Elevation]; upper; highest &c. (topmost) [See Summit]; high reaching, insessorial, perching. upland, moorland; hilly, knobby [U.S.]; mountainous, alpine, subalpine, heaven kissing; cloudtopt, cloudcapt, cloudtouching; aerial. overhanging &c. v.; incumbent, overlying, superincumbent, supernatant, superimposed; prominent &c. v. [See Convexity]. tall as a maypole, tall as a poplar, tall as a steeple, lanky &c. (thin) [See Narrowness, thinness]. Adv. on high, high up, aloft, up, above, aloof, overhead; airwind; upstairs, abovestairs; in the clouds; on tiptoe, on stilts, on the shoulders of; over head and ears; breast high. over, upwards; from top to bottom &c. (completely) [See Completeness]. Phr. e meglio cader dalle finistre che dal tetto [It].

20. 206. Height; N. height, altitude, elevation; eminence, pitch; loftiness &c. adj.; sublimity. tallness &c. adj.; stature, procerity; prominence &c. [See Convexity]. colossus &c. (size) [See Size]; giant, grenadier, giraffe, camelopard. mount, mountain; hill alto, butte [U.S.], monticle, fell, knap; cape; headland, foreland; promontory; ridge, hog's back, dune; rising ground, vantage ground; down; moor, moorland; Alp; uplands, highlands; heights &c. (summit) [See Summit]; knoll, hummock, hillock, barrow, mound, mole; steeps, bluff, cliff, craig, tor, peak, pike, clough; escarpment, edge, ledge, brae; dizzy height. ceiling &c. (covering) [See Covering]. high water; high tide, flood tide, spring tide. altimetry &c. (angel) [See Angularity]; batophobia. satellite, spy-in-the-sky. V. be high &c. adj.; tower, soar, command; hover, hover over, fly over; orbit, be in orbit; cap, culminate; overhang, hang over, impend, beetle, bestride, ride, mount; perch, surmount; cover &c. [See Covering]; overtop &c. (be superior) [See Superiority]; stand on tiptoe. become high &c. adj.; grow higher, grow taller; upgrow; rise &c. (ascend) [See Ascent]; send into orbit. render high &c. adj.; heighten &c. (elevate) [See Elevation]. Adj. high, elevated, eminent, exalted, lofty,tall; gigantic &c. (big) [See Size]; Patagonian; towering, beetling, soaring, hanging (gardens); elevated &c. [See Elevation]; upper; highest &c. (topmost) [See Summit]; high reaching, insessorial, perching. upland, moorland; hilly, knobby [U.S.]; mountainous, alpine, subalpine, heaven kissing; cloudtopt, cloudcapt, cloudtouching; aerial. overhanging &c. v.; incumbent, overlying, superincumbent, supernatant, superimposed; prominent &c. v. [See Convexity]. tall as a maypole, tall as a poplar, tall as a steeple, lanky &c. (thin) [See Narrowness, thinness]. Adv. on high, high up, aloft, up, above, aloof, overhead; airwind; upstairs, abovestairs; in the clouds; on tiptoe, on stilts, on the shoulders of; over head and ears; breast high. over, upwards; from top to bottom &c. (completely) [See Completeness]. Phr. e meglio cader dalle finistre che dal tetto [It].

21. 206. Height; N. height, altitude, elevation; eminence, pitch; loftiness &c. adj.; sublimity. tallness &c. adj.; stature, procerity; prominence &c. [See Convexity]. colossus &c. (size) [See Size]; giant, grenadier, giraffe, camelopard. mount, mountain; hill alto, butte [U.S.], monticle, fell, knap; cape; headland, foreland; promontory; ridge, hog's back, dune; rising ground, vantage ground; down; moor, moorland; Alp; uplands, highlands; heights &c. (summit) [See Summit]; knoll, hummock, hillock, barrow, mound, mole; steeps, bluff, cliff, craig, tor, peak, pike, clough; escarpment, edge, ledge, brae; dizzy height. ceiling &c. (covering) [See Covering]. high water; high tide, flood tide, spring tide. altimetry &c. (angle) [See Angularity]; batophobia. satellite, spy-in-the-sky. V. be high &c. adj.; tower, soar, command; hover, hover over, fly over; orbit, be in orbit; cap, culminate; overhang, hang over, impend, beetle, bestride, ride, mount; perch, surmount; cover &c. [See Covering]; overtop &c. (be superior) [See Superiority]; stand on tiptoe. become high &c. adj.; grow higher, grow taller; upgrow; rise &c. (ascend) [See Ascent]; send into orbit. render high &c. adj.; heighten &c. (elevate) [See Elevation]. Adj. high, elevated, eminent, exalted, lofty, tall; gigantic &c. (big) [See Size]; Patagonian; towering, beetling, soaring, hanging (gardens); elevated &c. [See Elevation]; upper; highest &c. (topmost) [See Summit]; high reaching, insessorial, perching. upland, moorland; hilly, knobby [U.S.]; mountainous, alpine, subalpine, heaven kissing; cloudtopt, cloudcapt, cloudtouching; aerial. overhanging &c. v.; incumbent, overlying, superincumbent, supernatant, superimposed; prominent &c. v. [See Convexity]. tall as a maypole, tall as a poplar, tall as a steeple, lanky &c. (thin) [See Narrowness, thinness]. Adv. on high, high up, aloft, up, above, aloof, overhead; airwind; upstairs, abovestairs; in the clouds; on tiptoe, on stilts, on the shoulders of; over head and ears; breast high. over, upwards; from top to bottom &c. (completely) [See Completeness]. Phr. e meglio cader dalle finistre che dal tetto [It].

22. Cross-references from 206 Height • Convexity • Size • Summit • Covering • Angularity • Superiority • Ascent • Elevation • Narrowness, thinness • Completeness 206Height

23. 206. Height; N.height, altitude, elevation; eminence, pitch; loftiness&c.adj.;sublimity. tallness &c.adj.; stature, procerity†; prominence&c.[See Convexity]. colossus&c. (size)[See Size]; giant, grenadier, giraffe, camelopard. mount, mountain; hill alto, butte[U.S.], monticle, fell, knap; cape; headland, foreland; promontory; ridge, hog's back, dune; rising ground, vantage ground; down; moor, moorland; Alp; uplands, highlands; heights&c. (summit)[See Summit]; knoll, hummock, hillock, barrow, mound, mole; steeps, bluff, cliff, craig, tor, peak, pike, clough; escarpment, edge, ledge, brae; dizzy height. tower, pillar, column, obelisk, monument, steeple, spire, minaret, campanile, turret, dome, cupola; skyscraper. pole, pikestaff, maypole, flagstaff; top mast, topgallant mast. ceiling&c.high water; high tide, flood tide, spring tide. V.be high &c. adj.;tower, soar, command; hover, hover over, fly over; orbit, be in orbit; cap, culminate; overhang, hang over, impend, beetle, bestride, ride, mount; perch, surmount; cover &c. [See Covering]; overtop&c. (be superior)[See Superiority]; stand on tiptoe. become high &c. adj.; grow higher, grow taller; upgrow†; rise&c. (ascend)[See Ascent]; send into orbit. render high &c. adj.;heighten&c. (elevate)[See Elevation]. Adj.high, elevated, eminent, exalted, lofty, tall; gigantic&c. (big)[See Size]; Patagonian; towering, beetling, soaring, hanging(gardens);elevated&c. [See Elevation]; upper; highest&c. (topmost)[See Summit]; high reaching, insessorial†, perching. upland, moorland; hilly, knobby[U.S.]; mountainous, alpine, subalpine, heaven kissing; cloudtopt, cloudcapt, cloudtouching; aerial. overhanging&c. v.;incumbent, overlying, superincumbent, supernatant, superimposed; prominent&c. v.[See Convexity]. tall as a maypole, tall as a poplar, tall as a steeple, lanky&c. (thin)[See Narrowness, thinness]. Adv.on high, high up, aloft, up, above, aloof, overhead; airwind; upstairs, abovestairs; in the clouds; on tiptoe, on stilts, on the shoulders of; over head and ears;breast high. over,upwards; from top to bottom&c. (completely)[See Completeness].

24. Other Thesauri • Special-topic/library thesauri • Controlled vocabulary • BT NT RT Preferred Term • > hierarchy • E.g. Art and Architecture Thesaurus • Roget’s Thesaurus of the Bible, Roget’s Thesaurus of Shakespeare • Research Thesauri • Imbedded thesauri

25. Karen Spark-Jones wrote her thesis “Synonymy and Semantic Classification” (1964) at the Cambridge Language Research Unit (CLRU), run by Margaret Masterman, and under the supervision of Masterman’s husband, the philosopher Richard Braithwaite. This work was far ahead of its time (Wilks and Tait, 2005). It was in fact the first application of statistical clustering methods to lexical data—in her case the whole of Roget’s Thesaurus on punched cards—and was an ambitious attempt to create some notion of primitive concepts for machine translation on an empirical basis, and it can now be seen as the ancestor of a range of empirical semantics research, from the semi-synonymous rows of terms (synsets) in WordNet to much later work on statistical clustering to determine semantic relationships. (Wilks) The Sedelows …

26. Thesaurus inside Microsoft Word

27. Online search

28. Thinkmaps’s Visual Thesaurus

29. Solution? • Thesaurus.com (Roget II) • Ads, ads, ads … • OED-style subscription ?

30. Research

31. Multidimensional Scaling-Semantic Neighbourhood of “over” S2g1 FCA concepts restricted purified “over”

32. Senses of “over” with shared words

33. Multidimensional Scaling – “over” S2g1 FCA concepts restricted purified “over”

34. MDS Senses of “over”-contours

35. MDS Senses of “over”-surface

36. Visualizing the semantic core

37. Sub-class, Sub-sub-class and Category layers

38. RIT Overview RIT Hierarchy Layers Roman Level Letter Level Synset Level

39. Sense X Sense : POS

40. Category2 - # Shared words between Categories

41. Roman SubClass2 – #Shared Wds

42. Letter SubClass2 - #Shared Wds

43. SmallWorlds

44. ENTRY=40:10:1-over Word-Sense Relation WORDS Synonymy SENSES Polysemy

45. Quartet ChainsRobert Bryan– “Abstract Thesauri” WORDS SENSES Synonymy Polysemy

46. “Bridge” Edge join vs. Corner join of quartet chains John Talburt and Donna Mooney Vic Jacuzzi

47. VJC 1501 VJC 184 Components/Partitions

48. The Central Components and Power Laws Talburt-Mooney Component TMC69 – 22,000 entries VJC184 (312 words X 324 Senses = 1,490 entries)

49. Component X Component Core TM69 Top 50

50. VJC184 Motion & Commotion core Motion Commotion