Micro-model as database structure

The micro-model specifies the types of lexical information required for each lexical entry. In terminology parlance, the types of lexical information are often referred to as `data categories'.

A possible source of terminological confusion lies in the term `data' itself:

1. Lexicographers (and terminologists) habitually refer to the readings of lexical or term entries as `data'.
2. Lexicologists, linguists, speech engineers habitually refer to texts and speech recordings, sometimes also to transcriptions, as data.
3. Database specialists and users refer to the contents of database tables as `data'.

The lexicographic and terminological usage is more closely related to the database usage than to the linguistic, lexicological and speech engineering usage.

For lexicologists, linguists and speech engineers, the readings of lexical or term entries are far removed from text or speech data, and are the result of implicit or explicit theory-construction. A lexicon, in this context, is part of an overall theory or of operational implemented model for a theory.

Recommendation: Especially in the spoken language context, the difference between the two uses has to be kept apart very clearly, for example by reserving the term data for text or speech data, and if necessary qualifying it as `language data', `text data', `speech data', and the term `entry' for `lexical entry', `lexical database entry' or `term bank entry'.