title: Expression and meaning of medical language: building an epistemological framework for the study of semantic distance.
abstract: The use of language for communication purposes introduces a semantic gap in data processing. We have developed a new tool called semantic distance to overcome this gap. A previous presentation of our tool was based on an empirical approach. Here, we examine the properties and theoretical foundation of semantic distance from a rationalistic perspective. We present an epistemological framework to explain the meaning of semantic distance. As a tool, the purpose of semantic distance is the exchange of data or knowledge based on linguistic expressions between software components. We propose a review of the relationship between language and its representation for data processing based on the underlying philosophical assumptions. Description logic is a new paradigm in the medical informatics community to express relations between terms in "is-a" hierarchies. The utility of semantic distance is compared to description logic for communication purposes in different use cases.
authors.affiliation: UFR-Broussais-Hôtel Dieu, Santé Publique et Informatique Médicale, 75270 Paris, France. cbousquet@magic.fr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bousquet
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Jaulent
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chatellier
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Degoulet
mesh_terms: D019359:Knowledge; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D012660:Semantics; D009626:Terminology as Topic