Thesaurus on computer techniques in Hungarian

Abstract

On behalf of the State Committee of Technical Development the Hungarian Central Technical Library and Documentation Centre (OKKDK) deals with problems of technical thesauri in Hungarian since 1968. As a result of this activity the Department for Development of OMKDK – in collaboration with outside experts and expert groups – compiled and published the “Általános Műszaki Fogalmak Tezaurusza” (Thesaurus of General Technical Terms) in 1970. The “Számítástechnikai Fogalmak Tezaurusza” (Thesaurus on Computer Techniques) was completed in 1973. Presently similar works are going on by preparing glossaries and thesauri in other subject fields connected with information processing and retrieval.

Aims and conditions of these thesauri were very different. In the first case

• - a general technical thesaurus was made

• - foreign examples were applied
• - it was a pioneer work without previous experiences in Hungary
• - it was very suitable to gain experiences
• - as a basic thesaurus it opened ways for further thesauri built on or connected with it.

As a generalizing experience it could be stressed that thesauri reflect the structure of production, economy and sciences of the publishing country, region or organization. Therefore their translation is practically impossible. The differencies in grammar, word-formation and concept-building are also increasing difficulties.

Experiences were gained in handling compound words very frequent in Hungarian, methods for thesaurus-editing were also worked out with the following basic rules:

• - gradual construction (identification of the basic vocabulary, step by step forming of various conceptual relationships, elaboration of indexes, building up the main part);
• - revision of the whole word stock during realization of the various steps, modification of terms and their relationships if necessary.

Based on these experiences the editing work of “Számitástechnikai Fogalmak Tezaurusza” (Thesaurus on Computer Techniques) started in 1970. The aim was the compilation of a special thesaurus in Hungarian to be used in information work on computers, in information processing and retrieval.

Non-Hungarian materials were used only like auxiliary help. The first word-stock was compiled from terms of the Hungarian KWIC index “Gyorsindex Számítástechnika – Automatizálás” (Quick Index – Computing + Automation) where they have been used already in practice. Meeting points of the graphic displays represented sub-groups with more terms within the broader categories.

Revision of the word-stock and grouping by experts lead to modifications – was again examined by an expert group. After the critical control of the second expert group the final text of thesaurus was edited including:

• - the main part of the thesaurus (with word-clusters illustrating concept relations);
• - subject group indexes (tables including graphical representations of descriptor networks and listing terms of sub-groups);
• - hierarchical index and
• - permuted index.

Experiences of the work:

• - orderless word-stock compiled could be well handled by forming graphic displays;
• - in thesauri made for practical use (so necessarily flexible in structure) rigid hierarchy is neither practical nor possible;
• - permuted indexes are worth to be made only when permutation is not made mechanically (on spaces).

The second part of the article – to be published later – will analyze the “Számítástechnikai Fogalmak Tezaurusza” (Thesaurus on Computer Techniques).