The plural of a keyword

[ahelg]

I've just started keywording images. Now I have a photograph which contains a load of tourists so I create a "Keyword Catagory" in Bridge called "Tourist". Inside this catagory I have the keywords "Tourist, Holidaymaker, Tourer". I want ot have all the most used synonyms so that my archive can be used by others than just me. My question though is how to handle the plural form of keywords. Should I also have "Tourists, Holidaymakers, Tourers" as keywords?

[johnbeardy]

People differ on this. I used to use the plural, even if there was only one, but have now switched to using  both singular and plural as appropriate. I find this means I can search for "keywords equals cats" or "keywords equals cat" when I only want photos with many or just one cat, and "keywords contains cat" when I want a wider selection of images.

A lot depends on the characteristics of the tool that you use to search for items and how it deals with plurals, particularly less regular plurals like "children" or "stadia"/"stadiums". If your images will be searched  by a tool that's smart enough to work out that when you enter children you also want "keywords equals child", then I think you go for the singular keyword. In my view you have to plan for search tools that aren't so smart and don't give you things you've not asked for.

It'd be interesting to hear others' opinions on this subject.

John

[AlanDunne]

I too have thought about this issue (never a good thing to think too hard, I might add). I ultimately ended up going for simplicity and just standardized on the singular version of keyword(s). I suspect that over my lifetime the efficiencies I would gain by searching for "cat" vs "cats" would not be worth it. 

This is one of those questions where there are no absolutely right or wrong answers.

Cheers ... Al

[johnbeardy]

See this discussion at Controlled Vocabulary. It was Roger Howard's response that, while I disagree with him, still made me focus on the capabilities of whatever search tool in confirming my opinion. If you can choose your search tool, he is right, but I don't think one can choose and I prefer the flexibility of plurals and singulars.

Thinking's good for you Alan - don't let them tell you otherwise

John

[johnbeardy]

Sorry, I should have posted this url - I hate Yahoo groups!

John

[ahelg]

Well I thought long and hard about this and I came to this conclution. If there are two dogs, call it dogs, if there is one dog, call it dog, etc. This would make it possible for me to find pictures with just one dog in it if I should wish to do so.

[sdwike]

I have taken the opposite approach to ahelg, and my keywords list entries look like this:

Bird, Birds
Dog, Dogs
Seal, Seals, Sea Lion, Sea Lions


Since my searches would most likely be on something like "Dogs AND Pets AND Kirby", or "Birds AND Robin And Nest", or "Dog AND Rotweiller", I think this methodology is less confusing for me, and provides for a shorter keyword list to scan through.

[billseymour]

...I am just full of questions this week...

Reviving this plural/singular keywording thread:

I did not get a firm sense of how folks (like John B) would handle the 'irregular plurals'. Regular plurals, like cat/cats I understand (John's idea of using singular or plural as appropriate); even child/children would allow search on 'child' and 'contains child'.

But- what is best way to handle, for example:
man/men
woman/women
hippopotamus/hippopotami (well, OK, I'm not too worried about this one...)

For irregulars, perhaps best to include both? Thanks-
Bill, Bill S. (best to include both)

[johnbeardy]

I guess a lot depends on whatever is used to search the data. If it's intelligent enough to return "man" when the search is for "men", then I can hold firm to my original singular/plural as appropriate line. But how many are that smart?

A second thought is that the plural often represents a more generic way to describe the image. So after applying keywords that simply enumerate the image's contents, you then add synonyms, any subjective knowledge of the image, and lastly you try to add mood music. So the image might be of a man but it can also be seen to about masculinity or men in general.

So I do feel including both is the right answer.

John

[billseymour]

Further on the 'irregular plurals'-

I guess it is also important for the user to decide if a 'too encompassing' strategy (ie- use just singular for all cases, or the plural for all cases) is something that can be lived with. If every grouping/singleton of a man is designated 'man', the user must live with groups of men when pix of 1 man was desired, etc.

I'm leaning toward the 'singular or plural, as appropriate'. I can get 'man', 'men', and if I desire both, I can do a Find for 'man' OR 'men' (let me review my Boolean 101 for a sec...).

For the 'regular plurals' (boy/boys, girl/girls), the singular/plural as appropriate seems to make sense too as John B. has outlined it.

Last thing- John's discussion of possibly using 'man' for 'man in the greater sense': my thought is to find another keyword for that concept: 'mankind', perhaps. Then one could still use man/men as appropriate, and use 'mankind' everywhere if one wished to do so.

Thanks- interesting discussion.
Bill