The meaning of facets

in nondisciplinary classifications

Claudio Gnoli(University of Pavia)

(ISKO Italy)

pictures by Caterina Barazia

in memory of Douglas Foskett, whose writings are far greater than the sum of their words...

Disciplines are an arbitrary constraint on classification

schemesBrown (1906)Kyle (1959)Foskett (1961, 1970)

Austin (1969)Beghtol (1998)Williamson (1998)Szostak (2004)López-Huertas (pers. comm.)

Defining classes as disciplines and their

subdivisions is a top-down approach

An alternative bottom-up approach

Farradane (1961)Austin (1969)

Foskett (1970)Gnoli & Poli (2004)

Facet analysis has usually been applied to

disciplinary schemes

ObjectsPartsPropertiesMaterialsActions in Medicine: in Technology:Operations = Therapies = Working ...AgentsSpaceTime

What is the meaning of facets when they refer

to phenomenon classes?

Colour?

Price?

Bodywork?

Fuel?

Firm?

class: Cars

Predicate logic

“I go from Pavia to Vienna by train”

moving me Vienna Pavia train

moving object destination provenance mean

P A1 A2 A3 A4

Any class can be considered as a predicate, with a set of

potential arguments = facets

with organ [A1]

at growth stage [A2]

affected by disease [A3]

living in habitat [A4]plants [P]

Integrative Level Classification

research project

w w w . i s k o i . o r g / i l c

Free classification

“Italian vineyards”

cultivation : grapes : Italy S Mpfdg K^ei

(Brisch in Kyle 1956)(Gardin 1965)

Ambiguities with specialized documents

“The dialect of the village of Portalbera, and wine terminology in Oltrepò pavese”

villages : cultivation : words : grapes : Oltrepò pavese

Tle S Ruo Mpfdg K@f

...Facets are needed !

Definition of facets

Relations typical of a phenomenon with other phenomena

Plants typically: Cars typically:

have organs, have some bodywork,

are in some growth stage, use some fuel,

are affected by some disease, are made by some firm,

live in some habitat, ... ...

Freely faceted classification

S cultivation

4mpfdg of plant: grapes

2k^ei in region: Italy

S4mpfdg2k^ei

“Italian vineyards”

...Notation gets complex and long:suitable for machine processing, but not for shelving

(Austin 1976, 1979)

Extra-defined foci“Italian vineyards”

S cultivation

4 [Mp] of plant...

4fdg of grapes <= Mpfdg “grapes”

2 [K^] in region...

2ei in Italy <= K^ei “Italy”

S4fdg2ei

General extra-defined foci

Mp “plants”T “artifacts” Ne perceptionNe8 [*] of object...Ne8mp “perception of plants”Ne8t “perception of artifacts”

Context-defined foci

place of unique definition (Farradane)

Xi musicXi3 [:] played by instrument...Xi3k “music played by stringed

instruments”Xi3n “music played by wind

instruments”

Cascading facets

X artsX3 produced by technique... Xi musicXi3 music played with instrument... Xiv compositionsXiv3 ??

Ongoing work

check and tune solutions suggested by the general model

write more PHP code to manage facets and foci

build a Web assistant for easy construction of classmarks

...

...Nondisciplinary (faceted) classification

is feasible