What are we producing - Naming Conventions revisited.

[Martin Bryan <mtbryan@sgml.u-net.com>]

Regarding the question of whether we are developing a lexicon or a
dictionary I think that the definitions of the two terms clearly show that
we are producing neither of these items. Whist we are producing a "reference
book explaining the terms of a particular subject" (see dictionary) we are
also producing "vocabulary of a person etc." (see lexicon). In particular we
are producing a "vocabulary for an industry, which includes both
explanations of the terms used by the industry and details of the
relationships between terms". I would remind you of the New OED definition
of thesaurus: "a book that lists words i groups of synonyms and related
concepts". If Buyers, Sellers and Carriers are all examples of a Party then
what we are defining is the key terms of a thesaurus.

What we are actually producing is a language independent vocabulary. The New
OED definition of Vocabulary is "the body of words used by a particular
language" But it also has a much more appropriate sub-entry, which is the
one that applies to us: "a list of difficult or unfamiliar words with an
explanation of their meanings, accompanying a piece of specialist or foreign
language text". What we are doing is producing "a list of agreed words, with
an explanation of their meanings, that can be used to interpret the meaning
of a message interchanged as part of a business process". It is a Business
Document Vocabulary (or a Business Process Vocabulary).

Martin Bryan