Opposite concepts in the same descriptor record
The central core applied to most thesauri is the organization into concepts.
Although they do not need to be strictly synonymous, terms within the same DeCS and MeSH vocabulary record may have related meanings, and some may even represent opposing aspects of a concept. Opposing and even contradictory aspects of a concept can be understood as complementary, interdependent and, most importantly, constitutive of the diversity of the concept’s identity. (https://bit.ly/4kRKDXp).
Based on this premise, the inclusion of opposing concepts in the same descriptor record allows a qualitatively more comprehensive bibliographic retrieval by allowing the gathering of semantically distant elements.
Some examples of opposing concepts in the same descriptor record are below:
- Literacy and Illiteracy
- Psychological Well-Being and Psychological Ill-Being
- Doping in Sports and Anti-Doping
- Gender Equity and Gender Inequality
- Cognitive Flexibility and Cognitive Inflexibility
Category: Curiosities
