Indexing concepts and/or named entities

1. Indexing concepts and/or named entities Pino Buizza 11th International ISKO conference Roma, 23-26.2.2010

2. Indexing concepts or named entities • Morphologic aspects • Concept and named entity • Named entity & proper name • Meaning of proper names • Semantic linguistics • Indexing languages • Beyond indexing languages Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

3. Morphologic aspects • Principles underlying subject heading languages (SHLs) • “each concept or named entity ... be represented by one authorized heading” • “names of persons, places, families, corporate bodies and works ... according to the rules used for author and title entries” • But: names incorporated in a phrase? • Romantic drama – Influence by Shakespeare, William • Romantic drama – Influence by WilliamShakespeare • But: entities not covered by cataloguing rules • Alexander the Great • Venus de Milo Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

4. Concept and named entity • Concept: “a unit of thought. Concepts exist in the mind as abstract entities independent of terms used to express them” (ISO-CD 25963) • Named entity: • unique entities • identified by a proper name • Which are the differences? Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

5. Concept and unique entity • Idea plane • a class, with shared characteristics • an individual in the class, with its own characteristics • Verbal plane – natural language • common nouns • determiners, definite descriptions, proper names • Verbal plane – controlled vocabulary • terms from subject heading list or thesaurus • a priori relationships between concepts • uniform headings • equivalence relationship between different forms Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

6. Named entity & proper name • In association with a common noun • Hurricane Charlie • Earthquake – Haiti – 2010, Jan. 12 • not unique entities considered a single entity • Automobile Citroên 2cv • Leontopodium Alpinum (or Edelweiss) • Christmas • types of material or of uncountable products • Chianti wine Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

7. Proper names • Philosophy of language • meaninglessness • only a reference, denotation, extension=1 • from an initial baptismal act • meaningfullness • Sinn (sense) • shortened description • categorical presupposition • grammatical meaning • intension/extension is only one aspect Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

8. Semantic linguistics • Grammatical meaning • Use meaning • Lemma/name • Categorial meaning • level of application • assigned / derived meaning... • ... Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

9. Semantic linguistics • In common nouns the meaning determines the denotatum • In proper names the meaning helps to retrieve an already given denotatum • Proper names • no asserted lexical meaning • presuppositional and asserted meaning • categorical meaning – linguistic convention • associative meaning – language use • emotive meaning • grammatical meaning • a mental referent Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

10. Proper name, a definition “A proper name is a noun that denotes a unique entity at the level of established linguistic convention to make it psychosocially salient within a given basic level category [pragmatic]. The meaning of a name, if any, does not (or not any longer) determine its denotation [semantic]” ... (Willy Van Langendonck, Theory and typology of proper names) Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

11. Definition / description Concept Unique entity • related concepts • independent descriptions • a net of meaning • infinite description • abstraction • instance • instantiable • not instantiable • divisible • not divisible • ... ... A proper name for a unique entity lacks the features of a common noun or noun phrase for a concept Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

12. Indexing languages • Concepts, connected • with a priori relationships • thesaurus without Named Entities • Named entities, isolated • without semantic relationships • with instance relationship(s) • exposed to different assertions Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

13. Instance relationship • Categorical relationship, independent from circumstances and documents • Men / women? • Nationality? Profession? • Architects, Painters, Sculptors ...? • Polyhierarchy? • Bruni, Carla BTI Models • Bruni, Carla BTI First ladies Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

14. Instance as syntactical relationship • The most specific concept instantianted • plus Named Entity, (term plus proper name) • Architects: Bernini, Gian Lorenzo • Sculptors: Bernini, Gian Lorenzo • Actors: Regan, Ronald • USA Presidents: Regan, Ronald (GRIS, Guida all’indicizzazione per soggetto) Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

15. Classification • No individual is a class (logically exclusive) • exception, due to literary warrant, not a logical reason: William Shakespeare in DDC • Every individual is in a class, or, in more than one class • disciplinary dispersion, like any concept • interdisciplinary number for typical categories • In a class with a proper number • UDC: class number + proper name Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

16. Bottom term / class of one • Proper names of NE are bottom terms • divided only by their parts/properties • qualified by syntactic relationships with other concepts or NE • Named entities are classes of one • no class is a-tomic, sub-classes with other facets Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

17. Beyond indexing languages • Proper name in catalogue: • mere denotation, with referent in the real world, • meaningless • Proper name in indexing: • categorical meaning, • with a mental referent • Proper name in full text searching (NER) = “propial lemma” • metaphora, metonymy, antonomasia, autonymy ... • different referents Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities

18. Thank you ! Pino Buizza. Indexing concepts and/or named entities