Page 219 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes forms. As the system is comparatively new, its use in subject files is rather limited. What follows
is a short summary of POPSI dealing with some of the essential features of it, largely culled out
from the writings of Bhattacharyya.
POPSI as a process for preparing subject-index consists primarily of (a) analysis; (b) synthesis;
and (c) permutation. POPSI is not based upon any particular system of classification but built
around a set of fundamental theoretical ideas on classification both in the analysis of subjects as
well as in the structuring of the names of subjects. The deep structure of POPSI arises from the
General Theory of Subject Indexing Language, which should form the basic framework for any
system of subject indexing.
All ideas, concrete or conceptual could be regarded as a manifestation of one or the other of a set
of postulated Elementary Categories of POPSI. These Elementary Categories are: Discipline (D);
Entity (E); Action (A); Property (P) and Modifier (M). These Elementary Categories are explained
below:
Discipline (D) includes conventional fields of study, or any aggregate of such fields.

Example: Physical Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, etc.
Entity (E) includes manifestations of ideas that are concrete or conceptual, as contrasted with
their properties and actions performed by them or on them.

Example: Energy, Light, Plants, Place, Time, Environment, etc.
Action (A) includes manifestations denoting the concept of ‘doing’. Action may manifest as Self
Action or External Action.

Example: Function, Migration, Selection, Organisation, Education, etc.
Property (P) includes ideas denoting the concept of ‘attributes’ – qualitative or quantitative.

Example: Property, Effect, Power, Capacity, Efficiency, Utility, Form, etc.
Modifier (M) relates to the manifestations of any of the Elementary Categories D, E, A, and
P. Modifier refers to an idea that qualifies the ideas of the Elementary Categories without
disturbing the conceptual wholeness of them; e.g. Infectious disease.

The arrows indicate the multi-relationships between the elementary categories.
The arrows indicate the multi-relationships between the elementary categories.
Besides the DS of SILs, a number of associated postulates are taken as the basis of POPSI system.
The major ones are:
Basic Sequence: The sequence Discipline (D) followed by Entity (E), both modified or
unmodified, appropriately interpolated or extrapolated by Action (A) and Property (P),
elements of Basic Chain manifesting in a compound subject-proposition. Any A or P may
have A and/or P related to it. Their positions are always after the A or P to which they are
related. This sequence may be used as the basis for generating organizing classification,
and which in turn may form the basis of generating associative classification.
Source Organizing Classification: The basic sequence of manifestations augmented by the
interpolation and extrapolation of successive super ordinates of each EC manifestation,
whenever required, will give rise to a basic modulated chain; which can generate a source

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