The Virtual Hyperglossary (VHG) project endeavors to "enable knowledge enhancement through global terminology; the VHG project offers terminological services to people who want to provide them on the web especially learned societies and also to people creating their intranets." Written in XML and based upon ISO standards for terminology (ISO FDIS 12620, MARTIF - MAchine Readable Terminology Interchange Format), the VHG employs "innovative concepts such as clickable concept maps" and uses current technologies such as java."
The developers of VHG, Peter Murray-Rust and Lesley West, have created a "simple but scalable XML DTD for terminology based on ISO 12620 (Data Categories for Terminology). This DTD uses a deliberately small subset of about 12 categories (e.g., <term>, <acronym>, <synonym>, <abbreviation>, <definition>). Others can be added through an attribute-based syntax. Hyperglossary is used in a wide sense to include any semantic resource composed of standardised subcomponents such as data sheets or catalogues. A major design feature for the VHG was that it should be easily accessible to people with little or no terminological experience (i.e., they are only familiar with the commonest terms). Thus a molecular hyperglossary could include chemical structures, measured properties and commercial availability. Because XML is tree-based it supports hierarchical collections (thesauri, catalogs, etc.) in a natural and powerful manner and we have found that most of our current examples fall into it. For non-hierarchical relationships (<see>, <seeAlso>, multiple broaderTerms, etc.) the VHG uses the full power of XLink to add additional structure. Thus terms can be grouped in different classifications by using xml:link="extended" with locator references to the linked terms. Equivalences (e.g., in multilingual glossaries) can be defined through an external link database. This allows different language curators to develop their glossaries in parallel and link the terms through XML IDs." [adapted from the 1998 XML Developers' Conference abstract]
[May 12, 2000] "The VHG has been designed with the knowledge and support of the authors of ISO 12620 ("Data categories for terminology") and can support any of those (ca. 150) data categories, of which several deal with multilinguality. They are deliberately not hardcoded into the VHG DTD because there can be complex relationships in multilinguality. Among the relevant data categories are: (1) equivalence (equivalent or quasi-equivalent or non-equivalent); (2) directionality (bidirectional or monodirectional); (3) false friend; (4) degree of synonymy. It is therefore possible, using 12620+VHG, to manage quite complex multilingual relationships, besides bi-directional equivalence." [Peter Murray-Rust]
Links:
- Virtual Hyperglossary Home Page
- VHG DTD Documentation
- The Components and Structure of a VHG; [local archive copy]
"Components and Structure of a VHG [Virtual Hyperglossary ]." "The components of a termEntry are described formally in the DTD, but the current section is a general introduction for non-terminologists... The VHG relies heavily on the emerging ISO FDIS 12620 standard for data categories in terminology, which describes about 300 categories used by terminologists. Terminology requires great precision in the use of words and phrases and for industrial-strength applications you should be careful to use words in a way that is consistent with FDIS 12620. . . . Curators will often wish to add strucure to their VHGs. Thus gas in the scientific sense will often be linked to other terms. These might include latent heat, vapour pressure, critical temperature and many more. To systematise this, the curator of a VHG might create a parent termEntry such as vaporisation. For melting phenomena she might create fusion. To unite both of these she might create an even higer level termEntry, phase change...The creation of such classifications requires a great deal of work, technical, organisational and usually political. Ontologies are highly personal, and there are frequently battles over classifications, taxonomies and related approaches. Often they are dynamic, and may have poorly developed terms."
- The Annotated VHG DTD - (V1.0alpha). [local archive copy]
- Sample VHG [local archive copy]
- "The Virtual Hyperglossary -- Adding Semantics and Ontology to XML." - Presentation by Peter Murray-Rust and Lesley West at the Montréal XML Developers' Conference, August 1998.
- VHG Publications
- "Enhanced Knowledge through Global Terminology."
- "Knowledge, Language and Semantics: XML and VHG." By Prof. P Murray-Rust and Dr. L West. In ASLIB Managing Information Volume 5, Number 4 (1998), pages 34-36.
- VHG Project - Aims
- About MARTIF
- Compare: "Ontology and Conceptual Knowledge Markup Languages" and "Topic Navigation Maps."
Addresses:
VHG
c/o 78 Broom Rd
Teddington
TW11 9NY
United Kingdom
Tel: (+44)181 255 1725
FAX: (+44)181 977 4361
Email: vhg@ceres.co.uk
