A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of
terms in a particular
domain of knowledge
Domain knowledge is knowledge of a specific, specialized discipline or field, in contrast to general (or domain-independent) knowledge. The term is often used in reference to a more general discipline—for example, in describing a software engin ...
with the
definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a glossary appears at the end of a
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...
and includes terms within that book that are either newly introduced, uncommon, or specialized. While glossaries are most commonly associated with
non-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...
books, in some cases,
fiction novels may come with a glossary for unfamiliar terms.
A bilingual glossary is a list of terms in one language defined in a second language or
glossed by
synonyms (or at least near-synonyms) in another language.
In a general sense, a glossary contains explanations of
concept
Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs.
They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...
s relevant to a certain field of study or action. In this sense, the term is related to the notion of
ontology
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.
Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...
. Automatic methods have been also provided that transform a glossary into an ontology or a computational lexicon.
History
In medieval Europe, glossaries with equivalents for Latin words in
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
or simpler Latin were in use, such as the
Leiden Glossary
The ''Leiden Glossary'' is a glossary contained in a manuscript in Leiden University Library in the Netherlands, Voss. Lat. Q. 69. The lemmata ( headwords) come from "a range of biblical, grammatical, and patristic texts".Lapidge, ''Anglo-Saxon Li ...
(ca. 800 CE).
Core glossary
A ''core glossary'' is a simple glossary or
defining dictionary
An explanatory dictionary or defining dictionary is a dictionary that provides definitions of word meanings at its entries. It may give additional information on pronunciation, grammar, etymology
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of Eng ...
that enables definition of other concepts, especially for newcomers to a language or field of study. It contains a small working vocabulary and definitions for important or frequently encountered concepts, usually including idioms or metaphors useful in a culture.
Automatic extraction of glossaries
Computational approaches to the automated extraction of glossaries from corpora or the Web
[P. Velardi, R. Navigli, P. D'Amadio]
Mining the Web to Create Specialised Glossaries
IEEE Intelligent Systems, 23(5), IEEE Press, 2008, pp. 18-25. have been developed in the recent years. These methods typically start from domain
terminology
Terminology is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A ''term'' is a word, compound word, or multi-wo ...
and extract one or more glosses for each term of interest. Glosses can then be analyzed to extract
hypernym
In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other ...
s of the defined term and other lexical and semantic relations.
See also
*
Index (publishing)
*
Terminology extraction
Terminology extraction (also known as term extraction, glossary extraction, term recognition, or terminology mining) is a subtask of information extraction. The goal of terminology extraction is to automatically extract relevant terms from a give ...
* ''
Frahang-i Pahlavig'', a glossary of Pahlavi logograms
*
Controlled vocabulary
Control may refer to:
Basic meanings Economics and business
* Control (management), an element of management
* Control, an element of management accounting
* Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization
* Controllin ...
References
External links
glossarist.com: The Glossarist- Large list of glossaries
Selected Multilingual Glossaries by Industry
{{Authority control
Book design
Lexicography