Propuesta de estructura definicional terminográfica en OntoTerm®

This article describes a framework for definitional analysis that presents definitions as dynamic entities encompassing both conceptual relations, following a category template pattern, and its formalization in the terminological definitional structure. The definitional analysis accounts for various levels of complexity, depending on how detailed the understanding is or needs to be in a specific contextual situation. We are presently using this methodology in a research project called OncoTerm. One of the objectives of this project is to elaborate a bilingual terminological database, whose conceptual structure is an extension of an existing resource, the Mikrokosmos Ontology. In our termbase, medical concepts are organized in categories represented by templates, which are systematically applied to all category numbers. The application of the template to more specific concepts generates values that show the inheritance of knowledge structures within a specialized domain. The definitional information within each term entry is thus totally coherent with the information regarding other terms within the same conceptual category. This approach leads to the specification of a language of terminographic definition, which is concise, consistent and applicable not only to the domain of oncology, but to other medical domains and other languages.