Orthography as a fundamental impediment to online information retrieval

Abstract

Orthography is the linguistic study of written language: Elements of text such as letters, punctuation marks, and spelling. Information retrieval systems operate in the orthographic realm matching some text strings (i.e., index entries) from documents with other text strings (i.e., query terms) from patrons. During the early history of information retrieval, it has been convenient to assume the rationality and uniformity of orthography in order to concentrate effort building information retrieval systems. Fundamental orthographic problems have persisted into modern information retrieval systems, however, where white‐space normalization and the arbitrary treatment of punctuation have exacerbated the orthographic impediment to information retrieval. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Assessing information taxonomies using epistemology and the sociology of science

“…Differences in language use that affect information retrieval can operate at a fine level of detail, for example, even orthography -which most people overlook -can affect success in searches (Brooks, 1998). In Turkey, the banning of letters q, w, and x for spelling Kurdish names (Coulmas, 2005, p. 207) leads to the creation of variant forms of Kurdish names.…”