TSS 2017: Terminology and Knowledge Organization Systems

@wetzelmichael International Terminology Summer School - Cologne, 10 - 14 July 2017
Terminology and Knowledge
Organization Systems (KOS)
Michael Wetzel
Coreon GmbH, Berlin
(based on works from Gerhard Budin, University Vienna)

Big = Unstructured = Text = Multilingual

Touchpoints between Terminology and Knowledge
Organization Exist in Several Areas
Semantic indexing of term entries
• Manage and control large terminology resources with an
emphasis on content
Semantic Web
• Process increasingly digitalized data resources, web services,
and systems
Multilingual KOS
• Terminology as the vehicle and is the entry point
Ontologization
• Repurpose terminology resources for domain ontologies

Types of Knowledge Organization Systems
Classification Systems
• Hierarchical concept systems, usually domain-specific, sometimes
universal in scope
Taxonomies, Nomenclatures
• Often in natural sciences: systematic arrangements of terms
seen as “scientific names”
Thesauri
• In information science: controlled vocabularies for indexing and
information retrieval
Ontologies
• In IT: formal conceptual shared specifications, domain ontologies
often created by formalizing the previously listed types of KOS
Semantic
Richness

An Example to Start with – the GEMET Thesaurus
https://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/

Knowledge Organization … definitely more than MS
Sharepoint
• Part of
– information and library science,
– philosophy of science and of epistemology,
– also of knowledge management and knowledge engineering, and
– terminology science
• To investigate and represent structures of knowledge
• Epistemological aspects, cognitive science aspects
• Linguistic and socio-cultural aspects (e.g. folk taxonomies)
• Historical aspects (e.g. Leibniz, encyclopedism, administrative
categorizations in ancient societies, history of science, etc.)
• Practical work: creating and using knowledge organization
systems
• A crucial process in linguistic action (sprachliches Handeln) –
Text organization both in reception and production

Practical Functions of Knowledge Organization Systems
Master To structure and archive the content of large scale collections
Design Model structural components of information systems and products
Find Support targeted retrieval of information based on conceptual search
criteria
Enjoy Search aids, visual navigation, query languages
Communicate Support tools (cross-lingual, cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural)
Share Instruments of corporate knowledge management
Learn Teaching support, orientation support, didactic tools

Characteristics of Knowledge Organization Systems
Model conceptual structures (hierarchical and non-hierarchical structures)
Explicitation of conceptual links, definitions (mono- or multilingual)
Terminological and linguistic standardization
Increasingly formalized and digital (in particular as „ontologies“)
Different scales (small KOS to large ones, 200K+ concepts)
Increasingly with visualized structures, interactive user interfaces
Static or dynamic (e.g. ontologies for modelling business processes in companies)

Domain-specific Knowledge Organization Systems
Medicine,
health, bio- and
life sciences
Business, trade
Industry,
engineering
Natural
sciences
Administration,
government
Culture
Pedagogy Linguistics …

And the Greatest …
www.businessinsider.com/different-types-of-beer-2014-12

Ontologies: Highly Formalized Knowledge Systems
• Computer science
– From: traditional field of philosophy (theory of being, existence,
theory of objects, etc.)
– To: formal, digitally represented concept systems / knowledge
systems
• Concepts are explicitly defined, terms are assigned
• Relations between concepts are made explicit
• Terms are standardized
• Logical application rules and constraints are specified
– Allows inferencing

Semantic Web:
From the Web of Documents to the Web of Data
• so that a computer program can learn enough about what the data means to
process it.
“Web of data”
• so that data can be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and
community boundaries.
Common framework
• www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb
Led by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• the Resource Description Framework
• integrates a variety of applications using XML for syntax and URIs for naming.
Based on RDF

Vocabularies – they Make the Semantic Web Work
• Define the concepts and relationships
– To describe and represent an area of concern
– Classify terms
– Define constraints on using terms
• Can be very complex or very simple
• No clear distinction between vocabularies and ontologies
– Ontology for more complex and quite formal collections
• Basic building blocks for inference techniques

RDF Plays a Key Role in Representing Vocabularies
• Resource Description
Framework: a family of W3C
specifications
• Knowledge represented in
machine-readable way
• Make statements about
resources in form of triples,
subject-predicate-object
expressions
• Several serialization formats
Subject Object
Predicate
“Mark Twain is the author of
Huckleberry Finn”
<http://example.org/person/Mark_Twain>
<http://example.org/relation/author>
<http://example.org/books/Huckleberry_Finn> .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain>
dc:relation “author";
dc:book “HuckleBerry_Finn".
TurtleN3

Standard #1: OWL, the
Web Ontology Language
• Family of knowledge
representation
languages for
authoring ontologies
• Languages are
characterized by
formal semantics and
RDF/XML-based
serializations for the
Semantic Web.
• Based on the RDF
specification

Standard #2, SKOS, the
Simple Knowledge Organization System
• W3C standard, based on RDF
• Enables a migration towards OWL ontologies (“missing link”).
• Often required by Web services
• Not a formal knowledge representation language
• Not a formal ontology (no axioms, etc.)
• For modeling controlled vocabularies such as thesauri or classifications which are of a
different nature than formal ontologies.
• Ideas or meanings described by thesauri or other kinds of terminology are referred to as
“concepts”
• -> “skosification” of controlled vocabularies (thesauri, etc.) and other terminologies!

How SKOS and RDF are Supposed to Work
…
<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://eurovoc.europa.eu/4539">
<xl:prefLabel rdf:resource="http://eurovoc.europa.eu/218000"/>
<skos:related rdf:resource="http://eurovoc.europa.eu/5347"/>
<dc:identifier>4539</dc:identifier>
<rdf:type rdf:resource="http://eurovoc.europa.eu/schema#ThesaurusConcept"/>
…
</rdf:Description>
…
…
<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://eurovoc.europa.eu/218000">
<rdf:type rdf:resource="http://eurovoc.europa.eu/schema#PreferredTerm"/>
<eu:termReleasedWithVersion>n/a</eu:termReleasedWithVersion>
<xl:literalForm xml:lang="en">land transport</xl:literalForm>
</rdf:Description>
…
…
I herewith inform about #4539
Look into #218000, there you will find one of
my preferred labels
I have a related concept – look into #5347
I am a Concept, nothing else
I herewith inform about #218000
I am a PreferredTerm, nothing else
My value is land transport, for English

Thesaurus Example: Eurovoc
• Maintained by: European Unions Publications Office
• V4.5 (June 2016): 6643 concepts, 21 domains, 127
microthesauri, 23 languages
• Multidisciplinary, covers:
– Parliamentary activities
– European Union, EU legislation, EU activities, EU policies, EU
institutions, EU regions
• Exact equivalence between concepts
– No coverage of regional or national concepts
Terminological standardization of indexing vocabularies for accurate
documentary searches
Documents indexed in the documentalist’s language, searches made in the
user’s language

Thesaurus Example: Eurovoc

Eurovoc Distribution: Available to anyone for Use!
• Online:
http://eurovoc.europa.
eu
• Download:
SKOS / RDF or XML
• Free to use, re-use,
link and redistribute for
commercial or non-
commercial purposes!

Other Important Thesauri
• GEMET – General European Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus
• UNESCO Thesaurus
• CEDEFOP Thesaurus (vocational training)
• AAT – Art and Architecture Thesaurus
• AGROVOC Thesaurus (FAO)
• General Trends
– Preparing for Semantic web applications
– RDF, SKOS, Linked Data, ontologies
– Networking/mapping/interoperability
Find more
Purchase pre-built ones

Summary: Types of Resources are Different by Degree of Complexity
Lists
•Ambiguity
Synonym
Rings
•Synonymy
Taxonomy
•Hierarchical
relations
Thesaurus
•Hierarchical
Relations
•Associative
Relations
Ontology
•Several variants
of typed relations
•Entity classes
•…

Editor for Ontologies: Protégé

Taxonomies: Established in Content Management Tools
From: www.drupal.org

Fusion of KOS with Terminology:
Multilingual Knowledge System Coreon

For more information on ontologies, knowledge organization
systems, on further reading, related tools, etc
Michael Wetzel
Coreon GmbH
Berlin
michael@coreon.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Any questions? Feedback and general impressions!

TSS 2017: Terminology and Knowledge Organization Systems

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