This section describers the grammatical forms of term, including nouns and noun phrases, adjectives, adverbs and verbs.
Nouns and noun phrases
A thesaurus term usually consist of a noun or a noun phrase as well as verbal nouns such as gerunds. Noun phrases can be :
- Adjectival phrases.
Example: cold beverages , brick walls. - Prepositional phrases. Example. hospitals for children, prisoners of war. However, prepositions should be avoided as much as they can add to the length of the term.
Example: use "carbohydrate metabolism" rather than "metabolism of carbohydrates".
They should only be used for concepts that cannot be expressed in any other way, or have become idiomatic.
Example coats of arms, plaster of Paris.
Adjectives
Although adjectives can be used as components of noun phrases, they can cause inconsistencies if used standing alone they which can cause potential problems during the retrieval process. For this reason the use of adjectives as thesaurus terms should be avoided.
Adverbs
Adverbs are rarely used unless they are part of phrases that have acquired a special meaning within a domain.
Example: very high frequency.
Verbs
Verbs should not be used alone as thesaurus terms, unless they are expressed as gerunds (for example, "weaving", "broadcasting"). Activities should be represented by nouns or verbal nouns.
Example: cookery or cooking (not "cook", "to cook", "cooked", etc.), distillation (not "distil").
Singular or plural forms
- Count nouns. Countable entities that answer the question “How many” should be expressed as plurals. Example: Buildings, figurines, dolls.
The exception to this rule is the words that parts of the body. These are usually expressed as singulars.
Example: head, cardiovascular system, ear. - Non - count nouns. Non countable entities that answer the question “How much” should be expressed as singulars.
Examples: wool, steal, water.
