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Dissertation Information for Blake Fleming Michael Wilson

NAME:
- Blake Fleming Michael Wilson

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Toronto (Canada) (1993)

ADVISORS:
- Margaret E. Cockshutt

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Joan Cherry
- Nancy Williamson

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: An empirical investigation of the semantic warrants exercised in thesaurus construction

Abstract: The primary objective of this thesis is to characterize and compare the thesaurus vocabularies generated by exercising in two subject fields (Social Work and Aerospace Engineering) each of the three semantic warrants: literary warrant, user warrant, and consensus. A determination of how each warrant constrains the selection of terms and thereby shapes the thesaurus vocabulary in made on the basis of differences among the vocabularies generated. The fact that the chose fields lie at opposite ends of an abstract-concrete conceptual continue makes it possible to test two hypothesis: that vocabulary commonality and that terminological precision would be significantly higher in the concrete field (Aerospace Engineering) than in the abstract field (Social Work).

A vocabulary representing literary warrant sources was compiled in each field from terms in journal abstract. A vocabulary representing user warrant sources was compiled in each field from terms in non-negotiated search requests and profiles. A vocabulary representing published sources of consensus was compiled from dictionaries in each field. Terms in the literary warrant and user warrant vocabularies were ranked by their frequency of entailment in dictionary definitions.

The three vocabularies were compiled within each field on the basis of: rankings assigned to shared terms (a rank-order correlation coefficient was used as an index of association between rankings); the commonality between pairs of vocabularies (match and compatibility ratios were used); and terminological precision of each vocabulary (a measure of synonymy and a parallel measure of polysemy were used).

The results of the statistical analysis indicate that the two subject fields do not differ significantly in vocabulary commonality and in terminological precision when comparisons are made without regard for warrant. These findings lead to the rejection of the two hypothesis tested. However, statistically significant differences were found between the warrant vocabularies within each field. Possible explanations of these findings are evaluated and the implication for thesaurus construction are discussed.

MPACT Scores for Blake Fleming Michael Wilson

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:26:19

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Students under Blake Fleming Michael Wilson

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None