Expression and meaning of medical language: building an epistemological framework for the study of semantic distance
Bousquet, C.; Jaulent, M.C.; Chatellier, G.; Degoulet, P.
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 84(Part 1): 166-170
2001
ISSN/ISBN: 0926-9630 PMID: 11604726 Document Number: 539948
The use of language for communication purposes introduces a semantic gap in data processing. We have developed a new tool called semantic distance to overcome this gap. A previous presentation of our tool was based on an empirical approach. Here, we examine the properties and theoretical foundation of semantic distance from a rationalistic perspective. We present an epistemological framework to explain the meaning of semantic distance. As a tool, the purpose of semantic distance is the exchange of data or knowledge based on linguistic expressions between software components. We propose a review of the relationship between language and its representation for data processing based on the underlying philosophical assumptions. Description logic is a new paradigm in the medical informatics community to express relations between terms in "is-a" hierarchies. The utility of semantic distance is compared to description logic for communication purposes in different use cases.