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Jump to navigationJump to searchCreated page with 'File:lighterstill.jpg '''Taxonomy''' is the practice and science of classification. The word finds its roots in the Greek τάξις, taxis (meaning 'order',...'
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'''Taxonomy''' is the [[practice]] and [[science]] of classification. The [[word]] finds its roots in the [[Greek]] τάξις, taxis (meaning 'order', 'arrangement') and νόμος, nomos ('[[law]]' or 'science'). Taxonomy uses taxonomic units, known as taxa (singular taxon).
In addition, the word is also used as a count noun: a taxonomy, or taxonomic scheme, is a particular classification ("the taxonomy of ..."), arranged in a [[hierarchical]] [[structure]]. Typically this is organized by supertype-subtype [[relationships]], also called generalization-specialization relationships, or less [[formally]], [[parent]]-child relationships. In such an inheritance relationship, the subtype by definition has the same properties, [[behaviors]], and constraints as the supertype plus one or more additional properties, behaviors, or constraints. For example, car is a subtype of vehicle. So any car is also a vehicle, but not every vehicle is a car. Therefore, a type needs to satisfy more constraints to be a car than to be a vehicle.
==Applications==
[[Original]]ly taxonomy referred only to the classifying of [[organisms]] (now sometimes known as alpha taxonomy) or a particular classification of organisms. However, it has become [[fashion]]able in certain [[circles]] to apply the term in a wider, more general [[sense]], where it may refer to a classification of [[things]] or [[concepts]], as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.
Almost anything—animate objects, inanimate objects, places, [[concepts]], [[events]], properties, and [[relationships]]—may then be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.
In an even wider sense, the term taxonomy could also be applied to relationship schemes other than parent-child hierarchies, such as network structures with other types of relationships. Taxonomies may then include single children with multi-parents, for example, "Car" might appear with both parents "Vehicle" and "Steel [[Mechanisms]]"; to some however, this merely means that 'car' is a part of several different taxonomies.[2] A taxonomy might also be a simple organization of kinds of [[things]] into [[groups]], or even an alphabetical list. However, the term vocabulary is more appropriate for such a list. In current usage within [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Management Knowledge Management], taxonomies are considered narrower than [[ontologies]] since ontologies apply a larger variety of relation types.[3]
[[Mathematically]], a [[hierarchical]] taxonomy is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_structure tree structure] of classifications for a given set of objects. It is also named [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containment_hierarchy Containment hierarchy]. At the top of this structure is a single classification, the root node, that applies to all objects. Nodes below this root are more specific classifications that apply to subsets of the total set of classified objects. The [[progress]] of [[reasoning]] proceeds from the general to the more specific. In scientific taxonomies, a conflative term is always a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyseme polyseme].[4]
In contrast, in a [[context]] of [[legal]] terminology, an open-ended contextual taxonomy—a taxonomy holding only with respect to a specific context. In scenarios taken from the legal domain, a [[formal]] account of the open-texture of legal terms is modeled, which suggests varying notions of the "core" and "penumbra" of the [[meanings]] of a concept. The progress of reasoning proceeds from the specific to the more general.[5][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy]
==Notes==
# Zirn, Cäcilia, Vivi Nastase and Michael Strube. "Distinguishing Between Instances and Classes in the Wikipedia Taxonomy" (paper); (video lecture). 5th Annual European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2008).
# Jackson, Joab. "Taxonomy’s not just design, it’s an art," Government Computer News (Washington, D.C.). September 2, 2004.
# Suryanto, Hendra and Paul Compton. "Learning classification taxonomies from a classification knowledge based system." University of Karlsruhe; "Defining 'Taxonomy'," Straights Knowledge website.
# Malone, Joseph L. (1988). The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation: Some Tools from Linguistics for the Analysis and Practice of Translation, p. 112.
# Grossi, Davide, Frank Dignum and John-Jules Charles Meyer. (2005). "Contextual Taxonomies" in Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems, pp. 33-51.
==References==
* Atran, S. (1993) Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards an Anthropology of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10-ISBN 0521438713 13-ISBN 9780521438711
* Carbonell, J. G. and J. Siekmann, eds. (2005). Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems, Vol. 3487. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 13-ISBN 978-3-540-28060-6
* Clausewitz, Carl. (1982). On War (editor, Anatol Rapoport). New York: Penguin Classics. 10-ISBN 0-140-44427-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-140-44427-8
* Malone, Joseph L. (1988). The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation: Some Tools from Linguistics for the Analysis and Practice of Translation. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 10-ISBN 0-887-06653-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-887-06653-5; OCLC 15856738
* Marcello Sorce Keller, "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: a Short History", Folklore, XCV(1984), no. 1, 100-104.
* Chester D Rowe and Stephen M Davis, 'The Excellence Engine Tool Kit'; ISBN: 978-0-615-24850-9
== External links ==
* [http://www.db.dk/jni/lifeboat/info.asp?subjectid=15 Hjørland: Scientific classification and taxonomy. IN: The epistemological Lifeboat]
* [http://species.wikimedia.org/ Wikispecies Main Page]
* [http://www.itis.gov/ Integrated Taxonomic Information System]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi/ Taxonomy Browser of National Center for Biotechnology Information]
* [http://www.taxonomystrategies.com/html/bibliography.htm Library of Taxonomy Resources]
* [http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps! - Making sense of it all]
* [http://www.taxonomies-sig.org/ Taxonomies & Controlled Vocabularies Special Interest Group of the American Society for Indexing]
* [http://www.cetaf.org Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities]
[[Category: The Sciences]]
'''Taxonomy''' is the [[practice]] and [[science]] of classification. The [[word]] finds its roots in the [[Greek]] τάξις, taxis (meaning 'order', 'arrangement') and νόμος, nomos ('[[law]]' or 'science'). Taxonomy uses taxonomic units, known as taxa (singular taxon).
In addition, the word is also used as a count noun: a taxonomy, or taxonomic scheme, is a particular classification ("the taxonomy of ..."), arranged in a [[hierarchical]] [[structure]]. Typically this is organized by supertype-subtype [[relationships]], also called generalization-specialization relationships, or less [[formally]], [[parent]]-child relationships. In such an inheritance relationship, the subtype by definition has the same properties, [[behaviors]], and constraints as the supertype plus one or more additional properties, behaviors, or constraints. For example, car is a subtype of vehicle. So any car is also a vehicle, but not every vehicle is a car. Therefore, a type needs to satisfy more constraints to be a car than to be a vehicle.
==Applications==
[[Original]]ly taxonomy referred only to the classifying of [[organisms]] (now sometimes known as alpha taxonomy) or a particular classification of organisms. However, it has become [[fashion]]able in certain [[circles]] to apply the term in a wider, more general [[sense]], where it may refer to a classification of [[things]] or [[concepts]], as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.
Almost anything—animate objects, inanimate objects, places, [[concepts]], [[events]], properties, and [[relationships]]—may then be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.
In an even wider sense, the term taxonomy could also be applied to relationship schemes other than parent-child hierarchies, such as network structures with other types of relationships. Taxonomies may then include single children with multi-parents, for example, "Car" might appear with both parents "Vehicle" and "Steel [[Mechanisms]]"; to some however, this merely means that 'car' is a part of several different taxonomies.[2] A taxonomy might also be a simple organization of kinds of [[things]] into [[groups]], or even an alphabetical list. However, the term vocabulary is more appropriate for such a list. In current usage within [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Management Knowledge Management], taxonomies are considered narrower than [[ontologies]] since ontologies apply a larger variety of relation types.[3]
[[Mathematically]], a [[hierarchical]] taxonomy is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_structure tree structure] of classifications for a given set of objects. It is also named [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containment_hierarchy Containment hierarchy]. At the top of this structure is a single classification, the root node, that applies to all objects. Nodes below this root are more specific classifications that apply to subsets of the total set of classified objects. The [[progress]] of [[reasoning]] proceeds from the general to the more specific. In scientific taxonomies, a conflative term is always a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyseme polyseme].[4]
In contrast, in a [[context]] of [[legal]] terminology, an open-ended contextual taxonomy—a taxonomy holding only with respect to a specific context. In scenarios taken from the legal domain, a [[formal]] account of the open-texture of legal terms is modeled, which suggests varying notions of the "core" and "penumbra" of the [[meanings]] of a concept. The progress of reasoning proceeds from the specific to the more general.[5][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy]
==Notes==
# Zirn, Cäcilia, Vivi Nastase and Michael Strube. "Distinguishing Between Instances and Classes in the Wikipedia Taxonomy" (paper); (video lecture). 5th Annual European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2008).
# Jackson, Joab. "Taxonomy’s not just design, it’s an art," Government Computer News (Washington, D.C.). September 2, 2004.
# Suryanto, Hendra and Paul Compton. "Learning classification taxonomies from a classification knowledge based system." University of Karlsruhe; "Defining 'Taxonomy'," Straights Knowledge website.
# Malone, Joseph L. (1988). The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation: Some Tools from Linguistics for the Analysis and Practice of Translation, p. 112.
# Grossi, Davide, Frank Dignum and John-Jules Charles Meyer. (2005). "Contextual Taxonomies" in Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems, pp. 33-51.
==References==
* Atran, S. (1993) Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards an Anthropology of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10-ISBN 0521438713 13-ISBN 9780521438711
* Carbonell, J. G. and J. Siekmann, eds. (2005). Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems, Vol. 3487. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 13-ISBN 978-3-540-28060-6
* Clausewitz, Carl. (1982). On War (editor, Anatol Rapoport). New York: Penguin Classics. 10-ISBN 0-140-44427-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-140-44427-8
* Malone, Joseph L. (1988). The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation: Some Tools from Linguistics for the Analysis and Practice of Translation. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 10-ISBN 0-887-06653-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-887-06653-5; OCLC 15856738
* Marcello Sorce Keller, "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: a Short History", Folklore, XCV(1984), no. 1, 100-104.
* Chester D Rowe and Stephen M Davis, 'The Excellence Engine Tool Kit'; ISBN: 978-0-615-24850-9
== External links ==
* [http://www.db.dk/jni/lifeboat/info.asp?subjectid=15 Hjørland: Scientific classification and taxonomy. IN: The epistemological Lifeboat]
* [http://species.wikimedia.org/ Wikispecies Main Page]
* [http://www.itis.gov/ Integrated Taxonomic Information System]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi/ Taxonomy Browser of National Center for Biotechnology Information]
* [http://www.taxonomystrategies.com/html/bibliography.htm Library of Taxonomy Resources]
* [http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps! - Making sense of it all]
* [http://www.taxonomies-sig.org/ Taxonomies & Controlled Vocabularies Special Interest Group of the American Society for Indexing]
* [http://www.cetaf.org Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities]
[[Category: The Sciences]]
