Birthe Toft, Institute of Business Communication and Information Science, University of Southern Denmark BIRTHE TOFT INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Language efficiency, term quality, and the basic level of categorization

Birthe Toft, Institute of Business Communication and Information Science, University of Southern Denmark

BIRTHE TOFTINSTITUTE OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION STUDIESUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK

Overall aim:

Analyzing and discussing the role played by terms at the basic (generic) levels of the sub-hierarchies of ‘deep’ concept hierarchies

1. A basic (generic) level of categorization can be defined for the ’non-technical’ subhierarchies of ’deep’ hierarchies of subject-specific concepts, such as SNOMED CT

2. The terms designating the concepts at this basic level are generally concise and appropriately simple – indeed, that is one of the reasons why we can easily identify them

Assumptions

Issues I want to discuss

1. Does the conciseness and appropriate simplicity of terms at the basic level have an impact on term quality at lower levels?

2. Is it possible to ’insert’ a basic level of categorization into the subhierarchies which do not comprise such a level?

3. Would it have a positive effect on the quality of terms at lower levels?

Outline

1. The basic (generic) level of categorization

2. SNOMED CT as a deep hierarchy of concepts

3. Identifying the basic level of categorization in selected SNOMED CT subhierarchies

4. Term quality metrics for translations of SNOMED CT: conciseness and appropriate simplicity

5. The basic level of categorization and term quality

The ’first’ level af categorization (Brown 1965)

For the child this is:

the level of distinctive action the level first learned and named the level at which names are the shortest and the most frequently

used the ’natural’ level of categorization (as opposed to artificially created)

Central taxonomic levels (Berlin & Kay 1969)

LIFE FORMS

’FOLK’ GENERIC

LEVEL

SPECIFIC LEVEL

SPECIFIC LEVEL

simple terms

cognitively central,simple terms

compound terms

plant

flower

rose daisy

tree

oak birch

The basic level of categorization(Rosch et al. 1976)

Empirical studies involving common taxonomies of biological and man-made objects containing the most common categories of concrete nouns in English revealed a cognitively basic or generic level of categories ’in the middle’ of general-to-specific hierarchies:

highest level at which similar motor actions are used to interact with category members

highest level at which a single mental image can reflect the whole category

level at which subjects are fastest at identifying category members

level with most commonly used labels for category members

Basic level categorization

furniture

chair

easy chair

rocking chair

table

coffee table

dining table

dressing table

cupboard

SNOMED CT = Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, Clinical Terms

a nomenclature of clinical terms used by 15 countries as a reference tool for efficient development of national health care record systems

translated into Danish and adapted to a Danish clinical context in 2005 – 2009 by the Danish National Board of Health (I was involved as a consultant)

now owned by IHTSDO, the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization in Copenhagen

currently being translated into a number of languages

(I have been involved in a consultancy project)

IHTSDO

IHTSDO: International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation

http://www.ihtsdo.org/



Concept ID 10509002 viral bronchitis

adenoviral bronchitis

adenoviral bronchiolitis

acute viral bronchitis

SNOMED CT AS A BACKGROUND TERMINOLOGICAL REFERENCE TOOL

Concept ID 10509002 viral

bronkit

adenoviral bronkit

adenoviral bronkiolit

akut viral bronkit

English Danish

SNOMED

PHARMACEUTICAL/ BIOLOGICAL

PRODUCT

CLINICAL FINDING

OBSERVABLE ENTITY

BODY STRUCTURE

PROCEDURE

SUBSTANCE

6 OF SNOMED CT’S 19 HIERARCHIES OF CONCEPTS

http://www.sundterm.dk/

http://www.sundterm.dk/

Sub-hierarchy within clinical finding hierarchy

pneumonia

aspiration pneumonia bilateral pneumonia bronchopneumonia

▪ adenoviral bronchopneumonia

▪ acute bronchopneumonia

▪ bilateral bronchopneumonia

Concept ID: 396285007 Fully specified name:

bronchopneumonia (disorder)

Preferred term: bronchopneumonia

Synonym: bronchial pneumonia

TYPES OF SUB-HIERARCHIES COMPRISING BASIC LEVEL CONCEPTS

Hierarchies of ’non-technical’ concepts

often based on ’folk taxonomies’ many representing concrete objects

STABILIZING

APPLIANCE

SPLINT

PELVIC SPLINT DEVICE

MALLET FINGER SPLINT

EXTERNAL SPLINTAGE

SHORT ARM SPLINT

SHORT LEG SPLINT

BASIC LEVEL OF CATEGORIZATION WITHIN THE PHYSICAL OBJECTHIERARCHY

seizure related finding

seizure

abdominal seizure afebrile seizure epileptic seizure

BASIC LEVEL OF CATEGORIZATION WITHIN THE CLINICAL FINDINGHIERARCHY

SUB-HIERARCHIES WITH NO OBVIOUS BASIC LEVEL

consciously, artificially created hierarchies, far removed from ‘folk taxonomies’

include subhierarchies of ’technical’ concepts, such as ranges of possible values

finding of balance

impairment of balance

difficulty balancing

poor balance

feels as though will

fall ill

general unsteadines

s

does not balance

keeps losing balance

unable to balance

BASIC LEVEL OF CATEGORIZATION WITHIN THE HIERARCHYCLINICAL FINDING?

BASIC LEVEL

neuro-logical finding

---Global deterioration scale finding for assessment of primary degenerative dementia

Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) level 1 – no cognitive decline

Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) level 2 – very mild cognitive decline

Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) level 3 – mild cognitive decline

...Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) level 7 – very severe cognitive decline

Consultancy job for the IHTSDO in 2010

Development of a methodology and toolkit for evaluating translation quality – in consultation with the IHTSDO Quality Asssurance Committee

Quality metrics to be proposed for 3 primary components of the translation process: outcome – the actual Target Language terms structure process

SNOMED Clinical Terms User Guide: Requirements for acceptably translated clinical terms

unambiguity linguistic correctness

national syntactical and orthographic rules must be complied with

transparency/motivation

a term should be immediately understandable and self-explanatory, i.e. it should reflect the characteristics of the underlying concept

international recognisability terms based on Latin and Greek word elements should be preferred

psychological acceptability

clinicians’ preferences and practice should be taken into account whenever possible

systematicity and

consistency similar morphological and syntactical solutions should be sought for terms covering semantically similar concepts

OUR SHORTLIST OF SUGGESTED TERM QUALITY INDICATORS

INDICATORS

Semantic adequacy

Precision: degree to which term clearly delineates the designated concept

Pragmatic adequacy

Clinical acceptability: whether the term has been rejected by end users. If so, how often?

Precedent: the degree to which the term is in harmony with established terms

Series uniformity: degree of consistency with term series to which it belongs

Form correctness Linguistic correctness

Language economy

Conciseness and Appropriate simplicity: term quality indicators suggested in Charles S. Gilreath: Onometrics (1993)

Onometrics: the formal evaluation of terms

Onometrics

(Greek onoma (name) + metron (measure)):

the science and practice of formal, systematic, explicit, objective, and rigorous term evaluation

▪ Developed by Charles T. Gilreath, 1993

Evaluation criteria in Onometrics

1. accuracy2. precision

semantics3. transparency4. unequivocalness

5. mononymy6. appropriate vocality

register7. precedent

8. conciseness9. appropriate efficiency

simplicity

10. form correctness morpho-

11. etymological purity logy

12. derivability13. inflectability

uniformity

14. series uniformity

15. acceptability diction

16. euphony17. pronuonceability

phonetics

Conciseness

= shortness, brevity

implies lack of redundancy (a factor rarely violated against, according to Gilreath)

closely related to appropriate simplicity

Appropriate simplicity

the appropriateness of the number of morphemes of a term considering the level of importance of the designated concept

the more important the concept, the simpler the term should be

Important vs. secondary concepts

relative importance of concept ≈ predicted or estimated frequency of occurrence in literature

the greater the importance of a concept, the greater the need for a simple (one-word) term

secondary concepts should not be represented by simple terms▪ (Gilreath 1993)

ISOMORPHY BETWEEN CONCEPT AND TERM?

Hoffmann 1984:

’Simple concepts’ simple terms ’Complex concepts’ complex terms

’Complex terms are frequent in technology and in some natural sciences, the objects and concepts of which are very complex themselves’

Myking 2008 (doctoral thesis on term motivation):

scientific/semantic concept of simplicity ≠ morphological concept of simplicity

Does the conciseness and appropriate simplicity of terms at the basic level affect term formation at lower levels?

BASIC LEVEL

inflam-mation of specific body organs

bronchitis ... acute infective bronchitis

acute bacterial bronchitis

acute chlamydial bronchitis

acute viral bronchitis

acute ecoviral bronchitis

Conciseness and appropriate simplicity and the basic level of categorization


BASIC LEVEL

Vital sign blood pressure

diastolic blood pressure

systolic blood pressure

minimum systolic blood pressure

minimum day interval systolic blood pressure

minimum night interval systolic blood pressure

minimum 24 hour systolic blood pressure


BASIC LEVELbiomedical device

syringe ordinary purpose syringe

hypodermic syringe ordinary purpose glass reusable 1ml

bladder/irrigation syringe

bladder irrigating syringe 100ml

enema syringe enema syringe Higginson's plastic

insulin U100 syringe disposable insulin U100 syringe+needle

syringe for ear


BASIC LEVEL

immediately dangerous to life and health condition (event)

asphyxiation

accidental asphyxia

accident asphyxia by plastic bag

asphyxia by obstruction of mouth and nose

aphyxia by entrapment with mouth and nose blocked

asphyxia by bedclothes or pillow

suffocation by plastic bag

Would it be useful to ’insert’ a basic level of categorization into the subhierarchies which do not comprise such a level?

PRESENT VERSION

excision of breast tissue

mastectomy and axillary clearance

total mastectomy and axillary clearance

mastectomy of right breast

bilateral mastectomy

mastectomy with excision of regional lymph nodes


BASIC LEVEL INSERTED

excision of breast tissue

mastectomy mastectomy and axillary clearance

total mastectomy and axillary clearance

mastectomy of right breast

bilateral mastectomy



PRESENT VERSION

comfort alteration

alteration in comfort: pain

alteration in comfort: chronic pain

abdominal discomfort

discomfort of vulva


comfort alteration

pain alteration in comfort: pain

alteration in comfort: chronic pain

discomfort abdominal discomfort

discomfort of vulva

PRESENT VERSION

device component of optical microscope

blue optical filter of optical microscope

blue-green optical filter of optical microscope

high power nonimmersion lens High power nonimmersion lens

low power scanning lens of optical microscope

Nomarski prism of optical microscope


device optical microscope

component of optical microscope

blue optical filter of optical microscope

blue-green optical filter of optical microscope

high power nonimmersion lens High power nonimmersion lenslow power scanning lens of optical microscope

Nomarski prism of optical microscope

PRESENT VERSION


.... Global deterioration scale finding for assessment of primary degenerative dementia




Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) level 7 – very severe cognitive decline



.... dementia deterioration scale

Global deterioration scale finding for assessment of primary degenerative dementia




Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) level 7 – very severe cognitive decline

Documents

Birthe Toft, Institute of Business Communication and Information Science, University of Southern Denmark BIRTHE TOFT INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION