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The Role of Classification in Knowledge Representation and Discovery - 1
Library Trends, Summer, 1999 by Barbara H. Kwasnik
* Naming. Paradigms are frequently used in the study of terminology. As mentioned in a previous section, hierarchies enable the creation of strong definitions, but paradigms allow the study of patterns of naming. When people name things, they are creating an abstraction by incorporating a complex set of attributes under one label. Objects that are quite different in many ways but share defining attributes may still be given the same name. For instance, animals with a wide range of physical attributes are labeled dog if they share the defining attributes. Or, when we call something a hamburger, we may include under this rubric many slightly different kinds of sandwiches. They may have lettuce, or a slice of onion, or ketchup, or not; they may be small or large, but if they have a beef patty and a bun they are named hamburger. Now, if you add a slice of cheese, the name changes. Two hamburgers that are quite similar with respect to lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, and even sesame seeds, will still be named differently if one has a slice of American cheese. Naming will vary according to context, region, profession, and so on. So terminology indicates classificatory decisions, and paradigms serve as descriptive displays of terms as well as tools for analysis.
* Distinction and lack of distinction. Paradigms can show the extent to which the intersecting criteria have distinct terms. In our example, we see that English has a single label for all the relationships displayed, while Polish has two terms each for uncles and aunts, and four terms for cousins, depending on whether they are related through the mother or father. So, in English, there is no distinction at all between cousins, and only a gender distinction between labels for your parents' siblings. Furthermore, besides being distinguished by side of the family, cousins in Polish are not completely distinguished from siblings and are given names that have the same root term as do brothers and sisters.
* Patterns of similarity and difference. In terms of knowledge creation, paradigms often provide a heuristic tool for the discovery of regularity in the patterns of distinction. When distinctions are made in naming (that is, when people create different labels for concepts), we assume that the criterion for having made that distinction is important in some way. In this case, the distinction of relationship through either the mother's or father's side is important in Polish. Conversely, while English has distinct terms for cousins and siblings, Polish uses similar terms for both, distinguishing only by gender. The knowledge conveyed is that, even though each culture has a great deal of overlap in equivalent terminology, there are some subtle differences that may have historical or other explanations. In fact, it is interesting to note that the Polish distinction between aunts and uncles from different sides is fading. Did English once have such distinctions? Does this indicate the cultures are merging?
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