There are two basic semiotically determined strategies for organising access to a term bank:
A semasiological approach has the advantage that it is easy to automatise the process of ordering. The disadvantage can be seen in the complexity of definitions required for terms outside local onomasiological contexts. Both types will be considered here: the onomasiological perspective as a source for a macromodel as specification for a hyperlexicon implementation EAGLET HyperLexicon), and the semasiological perspective as specification for a relational database (EAGLET DB).
An individual entry has to be structured according to a set of types of lexical information, or data categories: the micromodel. The micromodel is dependent on the macromodel in the sense of needing more specific information within the context of a onomasiological macromodel for the whole termbank and its subject field. The types of lexical information may include definitions, examples of usage, formulas, pictures, spelling, morphological and syntactic categories and structure.