A Study of Mapping Chinese-English Lexical Semantics for a Thesaurus in Chinese Art
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Chen, Shu-Jiun
Abstract
The semantic interoperability between knowledge organization systems has significant bearing on the efficiency of cross-resource retrieval for users, which is an important issue for digital library research. Semantic interoperability allows different systems and services to communicate data, information and knowledge, ensuring its accuracy and retaining their original meaning. However, any multilingual knowledge organization system, based on language and cultural differences-- especially with the need to integrate different cultural perspectives--will generate a considerable level of complexity. For the purpose of building a bilingual thesaurus enabling English users to access Chinese culture and art resources, this study aims to explore the semantic interoperability and methodology for important Chinese art-related terms in present Western art-based thesauri by analyzing the semantic mapping problems of Chinese and English terminology.
This study takes a total of 2100 Chinese controlled vocabulary from the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taiwan, and a total of 35,314 English concepts of Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) developed by Getty Research Institute in the U.S., and uses them as research objects; adopting content analysis to conduct a semantic mapping between Chinese and English terms. There are three main research questions: (1) To what degree of semantic interoperability can be achieved between Chinese art-related controlled vocabulary and Western art-based thesauri? (2) What patterns of interoperability are involved in the field of Chinese art in the bilingual conceptual structure? (3) For those Chinese terms that cannot be exactly matched, how to make English users understand their meanings? According to the analysis of research materials, the main findings of the study include:
(1) When mapping Chinese art-related terms to an international art thesaurus commonly used in the West, one-third of them can be mapped with “exact equivalence”, while other mapping relationships encompass “hierarchical mapping (narrow to broader)”, “cumulative compound equivalence”, “inexact simple equivalence”, “intersecting compound equivalence” and “hierarchical mapping (broader to narrow)”. Among them, three-fifths of the terms are mapped with “hierarchical mapping (narrow to broader)”, so it is clear that directly using AAT to index or retrieve Chinese art-related collections will lead to insufficient indexing specificity of the system. In terms of the quantity of vocabulary, the biological terms in “Agents Facet”, the terms about parts of objects in “Objects Facet”, and the motif terms in “Physical Attributes Facet” are most lacking.
(2) There are 4 different structural models that NPM corresponds to, regarding the concept of AAT: The first pattern is a specialized group that can be mapped, and the vocabulary is fairly complete (ex: Chinese Archaeology Culture); The second pattern is a specialized group that can be mapped but the vocabulary is incomplete (ex: Chinese ceramic styles); The third pattern is a specialized group that cannot be mapped, and the vocabulary is incomplete (ex: Chinese painting techniques); The fourth pattern is a specialized group that cannot be mapped but the vocabulary is complete (ex: Chinese mythical creatures). This result means that AAT has already embodied a portion of vocabularies and structures that exclusively belong to Chinese arts, (the first group), but there are still many included vocabularies that are incomplete (the second group) or have not been given a special subclass to focus on relevant vocabulary (the third group), even with the lack of the concept of structure, this group can be mapped with a complete vocabulary (the fourth group). In addition, the study found that the NPM part of the conceptual structure with AAT may be unable to keep intact the conceptual structure of one particular set of vocabulary during the process of producing corresponding vocabulary.
(3) According to the abovementioned research finding, the study proposes a set of methodological framework for Chinese terms and conceptual structures that cannot be exactly matched, in order to let English users understand their meanings, which includes seven modules: term collection, literary warrant, scope note supplement, semantic relationships addition, structure adjustment, concept creation, and expert examination. There will be different combinations of modules based on different mapping results of terms, so as to reach the optimum mapping quality and semantic interoperability. In addition, this study proposes four synthesizing methods for heterogeneous conceptual structures to meet the structural integrity between the two sides, or to obtain the best adjustment results in the two sets of vocabulary structure.
The findings of this study will help contribute to the research on the semantic interoperability between multilingual knowledge organization systems, particularly in dealing with Chinese terms that cannot be mapped to English in multilingual thesauri. The study probes deep into the core problems in a systematic way, trying to find a solution in order to satisfy the need of English users for accessing Chinese art-related resources.
Subjects
Multilingual Thesaurus
Knowledge Organization Systems
Controlled Vocabularies
Semantic Interoperability
Chinese Art
Type
thesis
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