Constructing Vocabularies

Terminology creation is no longer a task for taxonomists and information professionals alone; the active participation of subject matter experts, linguists and CMS implementers is often required as well. Lexaurus Editor fulfils this role, combining extensive vocabulary development capabilities with a simple, intuitive user interface.

What are controlled vocabularies?

Vocabularies are sets of terms. Terms are words or phrases that explicitly define concepts relating to their own meaning and also the relationship(s) they hold with other terms. A controlled vocabulary is a structure of terms, varying in complexity from simple lists and hierarchical taxonomies to more extensive networks of relationships and associations. Hierarchical taxonomies define terms by their relationship(s) with broader and narrower terms, while poly-hierarchical taxonomies use multiple ‘tree’ structures. Thesauri support relationship types and descriptive metadata about the term itself, while ontologies concern relationships and descriptions that are more extensive and less constrained in their format.

Irrespective of their structure, most business vocabularies will inform users of:

- Preferred or mandatory terms to be used for indexing and metadata.
- Structural and classification information for navigation.

Lexaurus Editor

Lexaurus Editor is a partner product to LexBank and a standalone, desktop application for quick and simple off-line creation and editing of vocabularies, taxonomies and thesauri. Read more...