Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A non-descriptor referring to two Descriptors

Not allowed? But I felt its need while revising/refining terms under
Alternative agriculture.
Biological farming includes:
* organic farming
* biodynamic farming
Making `Biological farming' a Descriptor is still undecided. In case it is left as a Non-descriptor, I would like to make it a broader synonym of `organic farming' as well as `biodynamic farming'.

Now my dilemma is:

(1) Should `biological farming' be made a Descriptor and NT under alternative agriculture? Should `organic farming' and `biodynamic farming' become NTs under `biological farming'?
(2) Should `biological farming' be left as a Non-descriptor and refine it as a `nearSynonym' for `alternative agriculture'? (or) Can I make it a `broaderSynonym' for both `organic farming' and `biodynamic farming'?



(image source: http://info.asapsupplier.com/index.php?pageid=1225)

Monday, January 26, 2009

Refining RTs

Very often the RT terms ARE related, but it becomes difficult to specify HOW EXACTLY they are related. Following is one example.


queen bees
BT honey bees
RT queenlessness
RT Requeening
How should these RTs be refined? queenlessness isPropertyOf queenbees? Or something better? and
honey bees `isObjectOfActivity' requeening?
Background:
There were about 2,090 ref. for `Queenlessness' in google search. It seemed to be an important concept and hence was made a descriptor. It is placed under state and the USE term, 'queen bees' is made an RT.
'Queenrightness' is the presence of queen bee and didn’t seem to be an important descriptor. (Only when something goes wrong, it becomes important!) Therefore Queenrightness is left as a non-descriptor, but is made a non-descriptor for 'queenlessness' instead of for `queenbees' and refined as `antonymOf’.