Terms: Vocabulary, Taxonomy, and Ontology

This chapter discusses the terms: “vocabulary,” “taxonomy,” and “ontology.” Terms and facts are semantic constructs. They are meant to have meaning that is shared by anyone who uses them. These terms are chosen from a much larger palette of possible terms for that industry and context. These terms have to be defined and used consistently by all the people and all the programs that access data referred to by the “terms.” The chapter examines where that chaos comes from and the role that taxonomies and ontologies play to help make definitions more precise and more commonly understood. The chapter examines business vocabularies and various ways they are organized. Vocabulary is the set of symbols (words) to which a given language has ascribed shared meaning. Taxonomy is a form of organized vocabulary. Classically the organization is hierarchic, based on some attributes of the things being classified. Ontology is a specification of a conceptualization. The chapter concludes with a discussion on how categorization relates to behavior and the power of dynamic categorization.