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This document illustrates how the second edition of the Integrative Levels Classification, published in 2019, can be used to create classmarks representing the subject of any document (a book, an article, a blog post, a video, a picture, a museum specimen, etc.).
Illustration and examples start from the most basic structural elements of ILC, then continue to show increasingly complex or sophisticated constructions. The first sections are sufficient to use ILC in many applications. The subsequent sections are only needed for specific cases or applications.
Unlike most library classification schemes, ILC classes do not represent disciplines and their subdivisions, but phenomena of the real world.
Phenomena are listed in order of integrative levels. As classes are basically represented by letters, this means that simpler phenomena, like atoms or molecules, are represented by lowercase letters like c, d, e, f, while more complex and integrated phenomena, like societies and cultures, are represented by higher letters such as s, t, u, v:
... d energy e atoms f molecules g continuum bodies h celestial bodies i rocks j land k genes l bacteria m organisms n populations ...
Further letters, written in lowercases, mean subclasses, namely types of their main classes:
m organisms mn mushrooms mo red algae mp plants mq animals mqm molluscs mqr arthropods mqrh crustaceans mqri insects mqv chordates mqvh ray-finned fish mqvl reptiles mqvo birds mqvt mammals
In this way, a longer string means a more specific phenomenon (as in traditional library classifications). At each rank of specificity, whenever possible, phenomena are listed in an evolutionary sequence, or increasing logical depth.
For every class, 24 subclasses can thus be expressed by letters b to y. In some (not common) cases, more than 24 subclasses of the same class are needed. Zoologists teach that mqvh ray-finned fish has more than 24 subclasses. To cope with this, some less common subclasses can be expressed with the emptying digit z, giving them the same specificity as the adjacent classes, despite having two more digits:
mqvhx tetraodontiformes mqvhxzf flatfishes mqvhxzs scorpaeniformes mqvhy perciformes
Some classes are structured as matrices: first-rank subclasses are divided according to a characteristic as usual, then all second-rank subclasses are divided according to another single characteristics, all third-rank subclasses are according to another single one, etc. This does not affect the syntax of the system. Such are the classes of atom orbitals, chemical elements, phonemes, administrative subdivisions. Matrix ranks are represented by X in the schedules:
e atoms; chemical elements eX periods eXX groups; families eXb alkali metals; group 1 elements eb period 1 elements ebb hydrogen ec period 2 elements ecb lithium
Apart from main class a- "forms, mathematical objects", lowercase letter -a- is always used to express attributes of a class, that will precede its subclasses in ordered lists:
mq animals mqa attributes of animals mqad animal diseases mqadg metabolic disorders mqadh heamodynamic disorders mqadn neoplasia mqao animal organs mqaod digestive system
Attributes usually are processes, properties or parts of their class, and are listed in this order: mqad diseases are a process of animals, preceding mqao organs that are parts of animals. Attribute concepts are often reused in special facets of the same class.
When several phenomena occur together and are considered in a generic relationship between each other (generic phase relationship or free relationship), notations for their classes can be simply justaposed, separated by a blank space (free classification in Gardin's terms):
l mqvt bacteria: mammals
Each of these associated classes is called a theme in the knowledge resource on hand -- for example, an article discussing both bacteria and mammals. Usually, one theme is prevailing over the others in the document: for example, the resource can focus on mammals and discuss their relationship with bacteria only as a particular aspect. Mammals are then called the base theme and expressed before the other particular themes:
mqvt l mammals: bacteria
If several particular themes are expressed, these should be listed in reversed order of schedules, e.g. l mqvt k fq "bacteria [base theme]: mammals: genes: nucleotides [particular themes]".
Fritjof Capra's book "The Tao of physics" deals with two themes: the basic components of reality, from b spacetime to d waves-particles, that can be written bWd (see spans); and Indian and Chinese thought, that can be written rcWn. While Eastern wisdom rcWn is an important reference in the book, what is discussed are especially the physical subjects, which are the book's base theme. The book subject is then
bWd rcWn spacetime to energy: Vedic Brahmanism to Taoism
One may want to be more specific, and express the kind of relationship holding between mammals and bacteria, or between fundamental physical entities and Eastern wisdom. Are we discussing the evolution of mammals from bacteria? or perhaps the affection of ill mammals by bacteria? or the presence of mammals in a place full of bacteria?... To this purpose, the following fundamental categories of relationships are available in ILC:
0 as for perspective 1 at position, time 2 in location 3 affected by agent 4 suffering from disorder 5 through transformation, change 6 having property 7 with part 8 as form 9 of kind
As it can be seen, categories are represented by numerals, that works as facet indicators. Indeed, they can express a variety of different relationships between themes, that are now connected as free facets of a faceted compound:
mqvt2l mammals, in bacteria mqvt3l mammals, affected by bacteria mqvt6l mammals, having bacteria
The themes of Capra's book above can be connected by 8 or, perhaps better, by 0:
bWd8rcWn spacetime to energy, as [alike to] Vedic Brahmanism to Taoism bWd0rcWn spacetime to energy, as for Vedic Brahmanism to Taoism
While the most general categories are expressed by single digits, more specific meanings can be expressed by a combination of digits: 23 means "from provenance, origin", as 2 means "in place" and 3 means "by agent".
Digit 9 "kind" takes special values: multi-digit facets ending with 9 express common facets, and multi-digit facets beginning with 9 express special facets. Furthermore, multi-digit facets beginning with 6 express passive facets. These special kinds of facets are discussed in the following sections.
Common facets, also called "common subdivisions" or "common auxiliaries" in other classification schemes, are free facets that typically take their foci from a specific class. This is expressed by a 9 as the last digit of the facet indicator. For example, while 2 can introduce any class considered as a context or place (mqvt2l "mammals, in bacteria"), 29 introduces a country:
29 [tt] in country ttc Germany mqvt29c mammals, in Germany
The values (foci) for common facets, like -c in this example, are taken from the class specified between square brackets in the schedules, in this case [tt]: see place of definition of facets.
Special facets represent typical aspects of a class of phenomena and its connection with other phenomena. Special facets of organisms are growth stage (embryo, larva, adult), organs (heart, lungs, kidneys), and sex (female, male); special facets of music are players (persons, groups), instruments (drums, guitars, trumpets), and genre (root, jazz, rock).
As these examples show, special facets change according to the different phenomena: while there is a growth stage facet of organisms, there is none of music. However, all special facets still belong to some of the fundamental categories listed above. Their category is indeed expressed by the corresponding digit that follows a 9:
91 at special position, time 92 in special location 93 affected by special agent 94 suffering from special disorder 95 through special transformation 96 having special property 97 with special part 98 as special form 99 of special kind
In music, composers are special agents, hence they are expressed by 93:
xm music xm93 [rab] music, by composer born in year xm93puwt music, by composer born in 1685 [Bach]
In organisms, geographical distribution is a location, hence is expressed by 92:
m organisms m92 [jU] organisms, distributed in range m92e organisms, distributed in Europe m92k organisms, distributed in Oceania
while sex is one possible kind of organism, hence it is facet 99:
m organisms m99 [ma] organisms, sex m99x organisms, male m99y organisms, female
Notice that in the last example foci are taken from the attributes of the same class, ma;
these are called context-defined foci.
Facets of a given class are cascading, that is, their meaning is the same all subclasses.
As in m facet 99 means sex, it also means
sex in mq, in mqm etc.:
mq99y animals, female mqm99y molluscs, female mqr99y arthropods, female mqri99y insects, femaleunless another facet of the same category is defined at a specific subclass (say,
mp99) with a slightly different meaning.
When more than one facet is expressed for the same phenomenon,
they should be cited in the reversed order of numerals, according
to the inversion principle of facet analysis:
as 99 is greater than 92, the standard way
of combining them is:
mqvl99y92e reptiles, female, distributed in Europe
rather than mqvl92e99y. Only when a facet is
especially focused in a document subject, can it be moved before the others despite the standard citation order:
mqvl92e99y reptiles, distributed in Europe, female
The value of a facet can sometimes be left unexpressed. This can be done by a capital X after the facet indicator:
mqv92X reptiles, distributed in some range
X is a deictic meaning "some".
To summarize it, two classes bbb and ccc can stay in these relationships [Gnoli 2007d]:
bbb ccc free relationship (free classification sensu Gardin) bbb6ccc free facet (freely-faceted classification sensu Austin) bbb96ccc special facet of a class (faceted classification sensu Ranganathan)
In both common and special facets (that is, in all facets
including 9), the possible values (also called
foci) are taken from another part of the schedule.
As we have seen already in the previous examples, the appropriate
source of foci is specified in square brackets:
mq animals mq97 [mqao] animals, with organs mq97d animals, with digestive system
In mq97d, the d comes from
mqaod, an attribute of the
same class mq. The digits mqao in square
brackets are not written in the faceted compound, as they are a
default value.
Notice that the faceted compound mq97d "animals,
with digestive system" has not exactly the same meaning as the attribute
mqaod "digestive system". Indeed, the latter can be used
when referring to the digestive system itself, rather than to animals
as a whole that are qualified by their digestive system. (This feature
of ILC acknowledges the distinction between facets in a semantic sense
and facets in a syntactical sense, as remarked by Coates, by Maniez and by Hudon,
unlike other faceted schemes such as Colon or Bliss.)
In other cases, as it has also been seen in previous examples, the values
of facets are taken from a different class of phenomena. Musical
instruments are not attributes of music, but are independent objects
belonging to the class w of artifacts.
So the facet of instruments in music mq95 is defined
as having foci outside the class of music, from wm musical
instruments:
xm music xm95 [wm] music, for instrument xm95kp music, for harp
Notation kp comes indeed from wmkp "harps"
which belongs to main class w "artifacts".
Let's take another example: breeding always use as its material some animal: there are no breeded rocks or breeded trumpets, only breeded animals. Hence facet 97 (livestock) of vk "husbandry" always is some animal mq, and in the schedules we find
vk husbandry vk97 [mq] husbandry, of livestock vk97vtud husbandry, of pigs
This means that foci of facet vk97 are the same as subclasses of mq, and their notation must be taken from mq. Technically, they can be called extra-defined foci, instead of context-defined foci as in the previous example.
Standard foci of the facet mq95, as in the example
above, belong to wm musical instruments and do not usually
belong to such other classes as e atoms or u enterprises.
However, in some less usual cases the related class is
not a subclass of the foreseen class wn, as with
widts "spoons" that belong to wi "pots":
xm95Vwidts music, for spoonsIf so, its notaton is preceded by a
V after the facet
indicator. V is another example of a deictic,
meaning "the entirety", hence being a kind of superclass of all main classes
a to y: here V resets the default class of foci
to the entirety of classes of phenomena, as opposed to wm
"musical instruments".
In the rare case that foci defined at a rank intermediate between
the entirety of phenomena (like V) and the special default
class (like wm) occur, generalizing facets
905, 9005 etc. can be used. Foci in each of the following cases are those defined at the class on the right:
abcde900005 a95 abcde90005 ab95 abcde9005 abc95 abcde905 abcd95
For example, foci of xm905 will be those of x95.
The number of 0s is designed in such a way that an appropriate sorting
of increasingly specific facets is produced, according to the general
principle of classificaton that specific meanings should follow general
meanings.
Reversed relations, i.e. passive facets, can be obtained by prefixing 6 to the facet digit:
mqvt3l mammals, affected by bacteria l63mqvt bacteria, affecting mammals
This is useful when a concept, like "bacteria", is the focused in the classed document, and other concepts have to be mentioned only in relation to it. In other words, this is the faceted equivalent of a base theme preceding particular themes.
As a consequence of the place of definition, when a class is the subclass of a faceted concept, it must be introduced by ). Consider this case:
osu97 [oas] communication, through channel osu97h communication, acoustic
We now want to have the notation for vocal communication, which is a subclass of acoustic communication. However, if we would use osu97hv, that would mean "communication through channel oashv", which is a different meaning. This problem was described by Vanda Broughton as the "Genesis problem" when illustrating the faceted representation of sacred texts in UDC class 2. To express the fact that vocal communication is a subclass of the whole faceted class osu97h, we have to write
osu(97h)v communication, vocal
Let us go back to our example above:
xm music xm95 [wm] music, for instrument xm95kp music, for harp
Now, harps in turn can have their own facets, as in:
wmkp harps wmkp973 [waf] harps, made of material wmkp973d harps, made of wood
Now, to express music for wooden harp, we cannot write
xm95kp973d as in this case 973 would
refer to xm "music" and would take another meaning.
Subfacet "made of wood" must rather be nested within facet "for harp" in this way:
xm95kp music, for harp xm95kp(973d) music, for harp (made of wood)
That is, subfacets are expressed by round brackets.
Notice that brackets start after the focus kp to ensure
an effective sorting of notation: indeed, xm95(kp973d), though
looking more intuitive to be read, would file away from its parent
xm95kp.
Although this is not expected to be a common situation, brackets can even be nested to express sub-subfacets, etc.:
xm95kp(973d(73mpwr)) music, for harp (made of wood (of rosidae))
When indexing deeply specialized documents, the nesting of subfacets can become very complicated. A real BARD document entitled "Guidelines on the applications of the environment protection and biodiversity conservation act to interactions between offshore operations and larger cetaceans" can be classed as
tay88ve(97qvtn(829u4vah)26nyc) regulations, about conservation (of whales (big, disturbed by technical operations) in oceanic zones)
To make notation less awful and easier to parse by both humans
and computers, it can be "flattened" by writing some facets as
separate terms introduced by free relationship, connected by
phoric Z:
tay88Z ve97Z26nyc mqvtn829u4vah regulations, about the following: conservation, of the following, in oceanic zones: whales, big, disturbed by technical operations
Z "the following" is a deictic
referring to the whole subsequent phase, thus avoiding brackets. Its
variants are
ZB the next following theme ZC the second next theme ZD the third next theme etc.and retroactively (anaphoras)
ZA the aforementioned theme ZAB the second mentioned theme ZAC the third mentioned theme etc.
Two or more classes sharing the same syntactical role can be listed in the same order of schedules and glued
by the symbols WA, WB, WC...:
iWAm rocks and organisms
This can also happen within a facet:
y8j knowledge, about lands y8jWAm knowledge, about lands and organisms
The upper case following W means the number of letters shared with the previous class, starting to count from the beginning of the classmark:
abcdWAx = abcd together with x abcdWBx = abcd together with ax abcdWCx = abcd together with abx abcdWDx = abcd together with abcx
In case the focus is a shortened (extra-defined) one, the count starts from the first letter of the original class, not of the shortened focus: thus, in
ef95 [ab] ef95cdWCx
x stands for abx.
A consecutive series of classes can be expressed by connecting the notation of the first and the last of them by the symbol W:
jWm = jWAkWAlWAm rocks and genes and bacteria and organisms rcWn = rcWArdWAreWArfWArgWArhWArkWArlWArmWArn Vedic Brahmanism and Hinduism and ... and Taoism
When used in subclasses, by default W introduces a sister class, like in the case of conjunctions:
mnWp = mnWAoWAp fungi and red algae and plants
In the rare cases where non-sister classes are involved, they have to be listed all by conjunctions, rather than as a span.
Some phenomena are of particular interest to human knowledge.
Among all organisms, Man is obviously the most interesting and
studied in human knowledge. As an anthropoid primate mammal,
its complete notation would be mqvtguos; but it is
helpful that this long notation is shortened, and Man is listed first among organisms as the one most frequently discussed. To this purpose, the symbol U "the typical" is used as a differentia, meaning "that which we all have in mind":
h celestial objects hU the Earth hl stars hlU the Sun j lands jU regions of the contemporary Earth m organisms mU humans
The general class U (not preceded by any digit) means
the most typical subject, that is individual persons (px "person"
is considered in its mental and conscious aspects, at a higher level than
mU "human organism"). Its formal equivalent is px91 "persons, born in", so it can be divided by birth time, with foci taken from rab. Like in Colon Classification, birth time is a short way to identify individual persons in ILC:
UX [rab] persons by birth millennium Uni persons born in 6th century BCE, Gautama Buddha Uptus persons born in 1564 Uptusc persons born in February 1564, Galileo Galilei Uptuse persons born in April 1564, William Shakespeare
Some concepts change their meaning according to the context. Examples are the concepts of "next", "tomorrow", "here", "you"... The meaning of "tomorrow" depends on which day is it today; the meaning of "you" depends on whom am I speaking to. These concepts are called deictics and are represented in ILC by upper-case letters. These can follow a standard basic class, like in
h celestial objects hU the Earth p consciousness pY actual persons pYA me, we pYC youor be basic classes themselves, as in
U-, A-
etc.
Dectics A to T are the favoured
host classes or the domain of discourse. They represent the
focus phenomena of concern in the present context. This is useful
when most expressed knowledge is about a specific domain, so that a
special classification scheme can be used instead of the general one.
All classes beginning with A ... T are subclasses of a
favoured class, either taken from the general schedules
(lower case letters, e.g. Abcd), or in turn defined
locally (capital letters, e.g. ABCD).
For example, the Dandelion bibliography of facet
analysis mostly concerns knowledge organization systems, their
subclasses and facets.
Hence most references in the bibliography should be classified by
subclasses and facets of yx "knowledge organization
systems". To get a shorter notation, and to get the preferred topics
at the beginning of lists, yx (actually its longer equivalent in
ILC1) was stated to be the preferred class A:
A subject index Aa with element Aan controlled terms Aas subject strings Aat notation Ae keyword index Aef folksonomy, tags Ah controlled term index from a thesaurus Aj subject headings Al systematic index, taxonomy, classification Ao ontology, semantic network
A can also be used to introduce detailed notation from the developing version of ILC that is not included yet in the published version (currently ILC2): for example, abcAde would mean subclass -de of a published class abc.
Deictics can also be used in combination: AWD "A to D", YX "it it true?". The precedence order of their meaning is reversed: Z prevails on Y, X, W, V, U, A-T.
The scheme of phenomena in ILC is intended to be as objective and neutral as contemporary knowledge allows. Of course, one could always claim that this is only one among many possible views of the world, as it happens in any classification; anyway, the scheme is being developed with an effort towards neutrality.
Sometimes, however, there is a need to reflect different and
particular viewpoints in classification -- that is, a need of
viewpoint warrant, as Begthol terms it. Examples are the
alternative orderings in knowledge of indigenous people, of non-Western traditions, of adepts of some faith or theory, of children, or schemes for special purposes. In the general scheme of ILC, they will usually fall under classes r "rituals" and y "knowledge":
mq animals y knowledge y88 knowledge about object y88mq knowledge about animals
A most classical example reported by Borges and Foucault is the weird classification of animals in a Chinese encyclopedia entitled "Celestial emporium of benevolent knowledge". It will fall under something like
y929r919pU88mq knowledge, in China, in the Middle Ages, about animals
Now, specifications of y929r919pU88mq do not follow contemporary standard classification such as
y88mqb knowledge, about mesozoa y88mqc knowledge, about sponges y88mqd knowledge, about cnidaria [etc.]
but a very idiosyncratic system, which can be expressed after a closing bracket as it is a subclass of this particular combination of facets:
y(929r919pU88mq)a animals that belong to the Emperor y(929r919pU88mq)b embalmed animals y(929r919pU88mq)c animals that are trained y(929r919pU88mq)d suckling pigs y(929r919pU88mq)e mermaids y(929r919pU88mq)f fabulous animals y(929r919pU88mq)g stray dogs y(929r919pU88mq)h animals included in the present classification y(929r919pU88mq)i animals that tremble as if they were mad y(929r919pU88mq)j innumerable animals y(929r919pU88mq)k animals drayd with a very fine camelhair brush y(929r919pU88mq)l other animals y(929r919pU88mq)m animals that have just broken a flower vase y(929r919pU88mq)n aninals that from a long way off look like flies
A knowledge base organized according to this system could be indexed by these classmarks. As the initial sequence y929r919pU88mq: occurs in many cases, it can be shortened by upper-case letters, giving
A animals that belong to the Emperor B embalmed animals C animals that are trained D suckling pigs [etc.]
In cases where the studied phenomenon is more relevant than the viewpoint, notation can be reversed to give priority to the phenomenon:
mq688y(929r919pU) animals, being object of knowledge (in China, in the Middle Ages)
The sequence 688y, meaning "being object of knowledge", can be replaced by common facets 0-:
mq029r019pU animals, as known in China, as known in the Middle Ages
Similar dimensional facets can also be used to express the theory (y06) and the method of study (y03) in Szostak's favoured sequence of phenomenon, theory, and method:
mq039b animals, studied through observation mq06X039b animals, according to theory X, studied through observation
and for Vickery's activities:
mp07vm plants, studied for healthcare applications mp07vq plants, studied for cuisine applications
With a similar use of dimensional facets 0-
for the form and target of a document, a more complete classmark for "The Tao of physics" discussed above can be bWd0rcWn009cm0069i "spacetime to wave-particles, as for Vedic Brahmanism to Taoism, as in monograph, for general public".
One particular viewpoint which is often adopted is that of academic disciplines studying phenomena. Although ILC classes represent phenomena instead of disciplines, the latter can be represented as a kind of phenomena, at the integrative level of knowledge:
y knowledge yi disciplines yis empirical sciences yisd physics yisf chemistry yisj geology yisl biology yisl88nyr biology, of forests yisq linguistics yisr sociology yisu economics yisu88nyr economics, of forests
If now we set yis as the favoured class A, we obtain a discipline-based scheme similar to those of traditional bibliographic classifications:
Ad physics Af chemistry Aj geology Al biology Al88nyr biology, of forests Aq linguistics Ar sociology Au economics Au88nyr economics, of forests
While works about literature, cinema, etc. must be
classified in xl, xs etc., works of
literature and cinema must not; indeed, they are not about these arts,
but are in form of art [Kyle 1959]. So, what are they about?
In most cases, literary works are about topics related with people
and society, in a more or less fictional set. Thus, they can be
classified as U089f "persons, as illustrated in fictional
modality", or s089f "communities, as illustrated in fictional modality", etc., depending on what level is the focus one. 089f will not apply to e.g. documentary films.
For example, Maigret novels mainly deal with murders
tadd, and the emotions and personalities
p of people involved in them, in 20th century France;
thus, they can be classified as tadd68p29d19px098f
"murders, being object of consciousness, in France, in 20th century,
as illustrated in fictional modality". If author is relevant,
it can be expressed: tadd68p29d19px098f0039pxorcn
"... by author born on 13 February 1903 [Georges Simenon]". If one wants
to account for the document being a video adaptation of Simenon's
novels, 009m "in moving images" can be appended. Wim Wender's film "The American friend" deals with friendship pabq by a fictional story set in Germany 0829b in form of moving images 009m; thus, it can be classified as pabq098f0829b009m.
A deep analysis has been performed on the example of Antonio Tabucchi's novel "Sostiene Pereira". Set in Lisbon and Parede during Salazar's regime, it has various themes, including
local politics, authoritarian regime, journalism, inner change, etc. Of these, the base theme
has been found to be courage in facing censorship. This can be represented in ILC2 as
ragi6bp42yacc2ttezp19pxrwi00xlt0029f "bravery, having change, facing censorship, in Portugal, in August 1938, as attested in novels, published in Italy". In a disciplinary classification such as Dewey, this would simply go under 853 "Italian prose",
with no hint about Portuguese history nor mental aspects.
On the other hand, if the form is more relevant than the contents,
like in a collection of poems in French on very disparate subjects, the
classmark can only consist of formal facets: X00589v005UF "something, in poetry, in French". The same can be true for abstract paintings or symphonies (although such cases as Smetana's "Moldau" also have a phenomenic dimension: jsr92esv00xm "rivers, in Moldau basin, as attested in music").
How ILC works — ISKO Italia <http://www.iskoi.org/ilc/how.php> : 2005.08.04 - 2020.04.10 - [how.htm until 2011.07.19]