Thesaurus
The Thesaurus function allows you to define relationships such as synonyms and antonyms. These settings affect how FACT-Finder assesses the similarity of records in the database.
You can only assign such similarities to individual words, so while you can specify that "jeans" is similar to "trousers", you cannot define the similarity to "blue cotton trousers". To work with multi-word terms, use the Preprocessor.
Thesaurus entries consist of word pairs (Source word (1) and Target Word (2)) that are related to each other to an extent that is defined by a similarity reduction.
The available Relationships (3) are:
- Synonym, no reduction (0%)
- Antonym, full reduction (100%)
- Similar, strong reduction (5%)
- Very similar, slight reduction (1%)
- Generic term, minor reduction (0,1%).
If none of the word relationship types are suitable, you can select Expert to enter a reduction of your choosing. The range of values is from 0% (synonyms) to 100% (antonyms).
For every entry you can determine if it should be unidirectional or bidirectional by simply clicking the field (4) in question. Synonyms and Antonyms are bidirectional by default, the other types can be specifically chosen. Rule of thumb: the direction from a pointless to a useful entry should be unidirectional. If both entries are useful, then choose bidirectional.
Rule of thumb: the direction from a pointless to a useful entry should be unidirectional. If both entries are useful, then choose bidirectional.
Add Entry (5) creates the required entry.
Below the input fields is the Search and test (6) section, which allows you to enter terms and quickly test their relationships with other words in the configuration.
If you want to delete entries, just click on the icon (7) on the right. If you want to delete multiple entries, then please select them via the check boxes on the left (8) and then click Delete (9) at the top right.
If you wish to change an entry, you can just click on it in edit mode. (10).