Semantic and syntactic relationships of indexing languages

색인언어의 어의적 관계 및 구문적 관계

Indexes, especially subject indexes, are major tools for information retrieval. To enhance the retrieval effectiveness of subject indexes, the semantic and syntactic relationships of indexing languages are very important elements. This paper examines the afore-mentioned relationships, based on purely the syntax and semantics of Korean language. The outlines of this study are as follows: 1. The characteristics and usages of controlled vocabularies, particularly subject headings lists and thesaury, are reviewed. 2. The semantic relationships, such as equivalence, hierarchical and associative relationships, are defined, and their categories are investigated in detail. Accordingly, the usages of 'See' and 'See also' references are suggested circumstantially. 3. The syntactic relationships are also examined. Particularly, for the syntactic relationships of multiword indexing terms, two kinds of subject entry formats are compared. Since it is more rational for subject headings organized by the principle of context-dependency, the two-fine entry format is recommended for subject indexes. 4. Computerized production techniques of 'See' and 'See also' reference for the semantic relationships of indexing terms are presented. 5. Computerized production techniques of subject indexes representing the syntactic relationships of indexing terms are also presented.