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Jacob, E.K., & Albrechtsen, H. (1997). Constructing reality: the role
of dialogue in the development of classificatory structures. In
I.C. McIlwaine (Ed), Knowledge organization for information retrieval:
Proceedings of the 6th International Study Conference on
Classification Research, 14-16 June 1997, London (pp. 42-50). The
Hague, Netherlands: Internation Federation of Documentation.
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Dovetails nicely with the discussion of ontologies and the semantic
web. Ontologies are epistemes. In the utopian view of the semantic
web, machines will be able to exchange ontologies to combat
heteroglot. Sounds like dialogue.
Such dialogue, as stated, will need to be in unitary languages or at
least a close approximation.
I fear there is a danger in the proliferation of unitary languages. If
a language is well defined inference is less fertile. Many a great
idea has come from skimming the connotative effluvia of
misunderstanding. Evolution results from mutation: from error.
As an aside: this article points out some of the reasons for my
resistance to professionalization: In part a profession is achieved by
the establishment of a well-constructed language. Such a language can
create barriers between those who are considered in the know and those
who aren't. Often this is necessary for safety purposes (doctors) but
in other situations the creation of a well constructed language
appears to be an excuse to write more papers about the domain because
you can't figure out what the domain is (information science).
(I'm aware of the paradox and irony.)
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