[topicmaps-comment] multilingual thesaurus - language, scope,and topic naming constraint

[Bernard Vatant <bernard.vatant@mondeca.com>]

Folks

I need a little help from my friends here ...

I'm currently working on GEMET, a multilingual thesaurus published by the European
Environment Agency (over 9000 terms in 18 european languages, with references to hundreds
of sources ...) and trying to provide an XTM version ... a challenge ...

I stumbled on a case where different descriptors have the same name in some languages, and
different ones in some others.
For example, compare the two following descriptors, and their names in six languages given
by the thesaurus.

topic 1: "The social study of the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth."

DAN : økonomi
DUT : economie
ENG : economics
FRE : science économique
GER : Ökonomie
SPA : economía

topic 2: "The system of activities and administration through which a society uses its
resources to produce wealth."

DAN : økonomi
DUT : economie
ENG : economy
FRE : économie
GER : Wirtschaft
SPA : economía

It looks like english, german and french makes the difference, whereas dutch, danish and
spanish clearly don't ... although I'm pretty sure they do distinguish the concepts
(social science vs economical system) but it does not show in the names the Thesaurus
provides.

If I use languages as scopes - which is usual - how will the topic naming constraint
apply? Should my TM engine merge topic1 and topic2, because they have the same name in the
scope "SPA"? Does not make sense ...

Suggestions?

Bernard