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Re: [ontolog-forum] What goes into a Lexicon?

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: David Eddy <deddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:41:13 -0500
Message-id: <F4A18340-B79D-4CC4-AE09-55182BBFC9B9@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Rich -    (01)

On Feb 25, 2012, at 6:27 PM, Rich Cooper wrote:    (02)

> Ontology
> designers that produce a well documented, highly
> learnable and usable ontology (i.e., something
> simple and down in the details of a domain) could
> provide a satisfying brick to many of those first
> time developments.    (03)


I am speaking in the context of the legacy software systems that  
enable our lives.    (04)


The language/lexicon/terminology/slang/whatever already exists in the  
applications.  Unfortunately it's pretty much been put together with  
a single ended one-time pad... & that guy(s) has left the building.    (05)

The problem is, unless you have the SME sitting at your side, or lots  
& lots of time, the terminology is very difficult to grok.  And when  
you move to the next assignment, the terminology/lexicon is very  
likely to be different, so you have to forget what you just spent 6  
months learning.    (06)

I would likely argue that this language collection has not been  
accumulated with the idea of an organized ontology in mind.    (07)

Imposing an organized ontology on this disorganized language  
collection probably isn't going be of much help.    (08)

But something that quickly shows or records or suggests that in a  
particular context "no" actually means "id" (e.g. soc_sec_no....  
social security "number" is not a number, it's an index... a very  
different beast)... now that would be useful & likely to be embraced  
by the grunts—application owners, analysts, programmers—in the trenches.    (09)


How ontologies could add value, I don't have a clue, since as far as  
I know it's a hard & fast ontological rule that requires a term to  
have a single definition/meaning... an extremely unrealistic  
constraint for this sort of ugly real world challenge.  [If I've got  
this wrong, please set me straight.]    (010)

___________________
David Eddy
deddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx    (011)


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