Reference Systems and Nomenclatures

This catalogue brings together external standards, official terminology databases, professional guidelines, and Réseau-Observatoire specifications. Each reference record identifies the issuing organization, scope, revision used, and task for which the document is used.

The catalogue is a starting point for methodological reviews. It does not replace the full text of a standard and does not attribute participation in its development to the Réseau-Observatoire.

Section Map

Area	Main Sources	Type of Application
Terminology work	ISO 704, ISO 1087, FranceTerme, IATE, UNTERM, TBX	concepts, definitions, designations, terminology records
Lexical data	ISO LMF, OntoLex-Lemon	dictionaries, forms, senses, ontology links
Knowledge organization	IFLA LRM, RDA-FR, ISBD, DDC, UDC, SKOS, RAMEAU	bibliographic description, subject indexing, classification
Electronic texts	TEI P5, EpiDoc, IIIF, Distributed Text Services	text structure, digital edition, images, fragment delivery
Manuscripts and archives	TEI msDesc, EAD, national guidelines	codicology, composite manuscripts, archival description
Transliteration and toponymy	ALA-LC, ISO 9, UNGEGN, French official lists	transmission of scripts, geographic names, name variants
Linguistic glosses	Leipzig Glossing Rules	interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme glossing
Biological names	Madrid Code, ICZN, Catalogue of Life	scientific names of taxa and authoritative identification
Chemistry and units	IUPAC Color Books, Gold Book, SI Brochure, ISO 80000	substances, reactions, quantities, symbols, and units
Health	ICD-11, SNOMED CT, MOS-NOS	diagnoses, clinical concepts, objects in health systems
Finance and management	ISO 20022, IFRS Accounting Taxonomy, IIA Standards, ISO 21502	financial messages, reporting, audit, project management
Translation	ISO 17100, ISO 5060, ISO 18587	translation processes, quality assessment, post-editing
Normalized textual representation	MN-LS	lexical, derivational, and syntactic constraints

Terms, Concepts, and Official Dictionaries

ISO 704:2022 describes the relationship between objects, concepts, definitions, and designations. The standard applies to scientific, technical, legal, and administrative terminology and sets general principles for forming terms and proper names.¹ ISO 1087:2019 establishes the basic conceptual vocabulary of terminology work.²

These documents provide a method, not a ready-made dictionary for a specific domain. In practice, form selection uses sectoral and institutional databases:

• FranceTerme — terms recommended by the French Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language and published in the Journal officiel de la République française;
• IATE — terminology database of the European Union institutions;
• UNTERM — terminology of the United Nations;
• ISO Online Browsing Platform — terms and definitions published in ISO standards;
• TBX — format for exchanging terminology data.

The French system is a particularly clear example of public terminology infrastructure. In 2024, the Commission published 228 terms and definitions prepared by nearly 400 experts; FranceTerme contained more than 9,500 entries.³ Historical printed volumes, including the Dictionnaire des termes officiels de la langue française, retain bibliographic value, but current practice is checked through the database and publications in the Journal officiel.⁴

Lexical Resources

A lexical entry requires a structure beyond the pair “word — translation.” It distinguishes lemma, forms, senses, examples, domain, etymology, variants, and links with concepts.

The ISO 24613 series, Lexical Markup Framework (LMF), defines a metamodel for machine-readable lexical resources.⁵ OntoLex-Lemon connects lexical units with concepts and ontologies in an RDF environment.⁶ In Réseau-Observatoire projects, these sources are used when designing dictionaries, terminology databases, and registries of productive bases.

Bibliographic Description and Knowledge Organization

A bibliographic system distinguishes the work, a concrete expression, the published manifestation, and the item. IFLA Library Reference Model brings together the main entities and relationships of the modern library model; RDA-FR develops the French application of those principles.⁷ ISBD governs the description of published resources, while national catalogues supplement those rules with authority records for names, organizations, works, and subject headings.

Classification systems serve another purpose: placing content within a stable structure of knowledge domains. The catalogue tracks:

• Dewey Decimal Classification;
• Universal Decimal Classification;
• RAMEAU, used in French subject indexing;
• SKOS, a model for representing thesauri and other knowledge organization systems in the Semantic Web;
• the work of ISKO France and the international ISKO community.

A separate review will address the structure of classifications: hierarchies, facets, cross-references, historical changes, and boundaries between library index, subject thesaurus, and scientific ontology.

Electronic Texts, Ancient Documents, and Manuscripts

TEI P5 is the principal reference for encoding text structure, header metadata, dictionary entries, persons, places, and editorial changes. At the time of this working version, the current release is 4.12.0, dated July 28, 2026.⁸

EpiDoc applies a TEI subset to scholarly and teaching editions of inscriptions, papyri, manuscripts, and other ancient documents. Release 9.8 was published in February 2026.⁹ Description of a manuscript object must account for material support, composition, history, hands, decoration, condition, and the relationship between physical and textual units.

Additional layers are provided by:

• IIIF Presentation API 3.0 — images, page sequences, annotations, transcriptions, and translations;
• Distributed Text Services 1.0 — identification of collections, navigation, and programmable delivery of fragments;
• Encoded Archival Description — archival descriptions;
• the TEI chapter Manuscript Description — elements msDesc, msIdentifier, msContents, physDesc, history, and related structures.

Citation, Segmentation, and Glossing

Stable citation requires an explicit hierarchy of a work and its parts. For classical and ancient texts, traditional systems of book, chapter, paragraph, line, or fragment may be used; the digital profile must preserve that system while also issuing a stable identifier.

The Leipzig Glossing Rules establish minimal conventions for interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme glossing. Their value lies in their limited scope: they stabilize the representation of segmentation and grammatical abbreviations without replacing grammatical description of the language.¹⁰

The local MN-CITE and MN-PAR profiles will connect citation with parallel versions: alignment unit, omissions, permutations, one-to-many correspondences, and status of reconstructed fragments.

Transliteration, Transcription, and Geographic Names

Rendering a name in the Latin alphabet can serve different purposes. Transliteration seeks stable sign-to-sign correspondence; transcription conveys pronunciation; library romanization supports search and sorting; national rules preserve accepted name forms.

The catalogue compares:

• ALA-LC Romanization Tables;
• ISO 9 for Cyrillic scripts;
• systems documented by UNGEGN;
• national tables and library practices;
• French lists of country names, capitals, and derived forms;
• CNIG recommendations on toponymy and names of territorial units.

A future page will be organized by scripts and languages. For each system, it will need to state purpose, reversibility, scope, treatment of diacritics, and relation to common national forms.

Biological Nomenclature

The scientific name of a biological taxon is governed by the code corresponding to the group of organisms. For algae, fungi, and plants, the International Code of Nomenclature applies; the current revision, the Madrid Code, was published in 2025.¹¹ For animals, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is maintained by ICZN.¹² Catalogue of Life serves as a global integrated catalogue of taxonomic data.

The scientific name does not replace the common name. A Réseau-Observatoire review will distinguish species identification, vernacular names, and the cultural function of an image in a text. Lily, rose, birch, date palm, hare, and rabbit may occupy comparable positions in different literary traditions, but that functional comparison does not make them biological or translational equivalents. Each case requires verification of text, environment, and genre.

Chemical Substances, Quantities, and Units

IUPAC publishes a system of reference books known as the Color Books: the Blue Book for organic nomenclature, the Red Book for inorganic nomenclature, the Green Book for quantities and units in physical chemistry, and others.¹³ The Gold Book is a compendium of chemical terminology; version 5.0.0 contains more than 14,500 terms.¹⁴

The International System of Units is documented by BIPM in the SI Brochure; the ninth edition was updated in June 2026.¹⁵ The ISO 80000 series supplements it with rules for naming quantities, symbols, and units in different subject areas.

For textual resources, this means separately storing the systematic name, common name, formula, substance identifier, numerical value, unit, and measurement conditions.

Countries, Peoples, and Languages

A list of country names must distinguish short form, official form, capital, adjective, demonym, and historical variants. In French practice, the starting point is the order of November 4, 1993 on the terminology of country and capital names, together with subsequent administrative and toponymic references.¹⁶

Names of peoples and languages require a separate record. State, citizenship, ethnonym, language, and self-designation may not coincide. In the future database, each designation will be connected with a source, record language, domain, and date of applicability; politically or historically disputed forms will be presented as variants with explicit attribution.

Health

ICD-11 of the World Health Organization organizes the classification of diseases and related conditions; the 2026 release includes current updates to the digital version.¹⁷ SNOMED CT provides clinical terminology of concepts and relationships. In France, Agence du Numérique en Santé publishes MOS-NOS, health object models and associated nomenclatures for system interoperability.

These references will be separated into three future pages: anatomy and physiology; medical concepts and classifications; organization of the health system. French administrative objects should not be automatically transferred to other countries.

Finance, Management, and Audit

In finance, standardization covers concepts as well as messages and reporting. ISO 20022 defines a metamodel and repository for financial messages. IFRS Accounting Taxonomy represents financial reporting standards in structured form. The Global Internal Audit Standards of the Institute of Internal Auditors have been effective since 2025.¹⁸ ISO 21502 provides guidance on project management.¹⁹

The public review will distinguish legal term, sector concept, accounting element, message element, and practical designation within an organization. This distinction is especially important for words such as capital, liquidity, exposure, control, risk, and assurance, whose meaning changes with context.

Translation and Quality Assessment

ISO 17100 describes the processes and competences of a translation service; ISO 5060:2024 covers assessment of translation output; ISO 18587 covers post-editing of machine translation.²⁰ These standards do not define the single correct translation. They help distinguish input text, brief, translator’s work, checking, revision, and assessment criteria.

A separate methodological page will address cultural and functional equivalence. It will consider cases where literal identification of an object and its role in the imagery system of a text diverge. Examples involving plants and animals will be introduced only after philological and ethnographic verification of sources.

Normalized Lexico-Syntactic Representation

The local MN-LS profile sets constraints for normalized textual versions: classes of lexical bases, productive forms, regular derivation, neutral component order, and expression of selected grammatical relations.

Its documentation is distributed across three resources:

1. MN-LS specification — active revision, change history, and implementation registry;
2. Romanova — Texts and Resources — dictionary, reading guide, and complete texts;
3. AlterVista historical archive — early revisions of the general grammar.

The profile is published after the series nomenclature is completed and after testing on several texts. Archival predecessors are described by their original date and context; a reconstructed document receives a separate reconstruction date.