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Cultural Literacy in a Global Information Society - Specific Language: an Exploratory Ontological Analysis Utilizing Comparative Taxonomy

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Cultural Literacy in a Global Information Society - Specific Language: an Exploratory Ontological Analysis Utilizing Comparative Taxonomy 55 Daniel J. O'Keefe Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University, New York, USA Cultural literacy in a global information society - specific language: an exploratory ontological analysis utilizing comparative taxonomy Abstract: Cultural literacy is defined as the social role of information within, between and across cultures. The term cultural literacy is both oral and chirographic, maintaining cultural identity within a discourse community. A discourse community must have a common vocabulary. One measure of an evolving discourse community is the gradual development of a common vocabulary. Taxonomy, the knowledge organization tool that can be used to demonstrate relationships among terms in a common vocahulary, is an appropriate approach at this time in the discourse community of cultural literacy. Ordering the taxonomy into an ontology can demonstrate another measure of uniformity or order (or lack of it) in the discourse community. The methodology involves discovering key documents that definc the discourse community. The research reported in this paper has three objectives: (I) to create a taxonomy using two documents written by noted authors within the field of cultural literacy; (2) to determine whether common vocabulary contains matching words or terms; and if possible, (3) to classify these terms. The importance of this exploratory study is two-fold. First, examination of the taxonomy crcated by two noted authors in the field might establish a measure of unifonnity within the discourse community. Second, the results will determine whether further research is warranted. 1. Introduction Cultural literacy is defined as the social role of information within, between and across cultures (O'Keefe, 2002). The term cultural literacy is both oral and chirographic maintaining cultural identity within a discourse community. A discourse community must have a common vocabulary. One measure of an evolving discourse community is the gradual development of a common vocabulary. Taxonomy, the knowledge organization tool that can be used to demonstrate relationships among terms in a common vocabulary, is an appropriate approach at this time in the discourse community of cultural literacy. Ordering a taxonomy into ontology can demonstrate another measure of uniformity or order (or lack of it) in the discourse community. Taxonomies, according to Lee (2002, 16 0), embrace relationships among both physical and intellectual components of bibliographic entities. The knowledge that taxonomies reduce the complexity of relationships is evidence that a discourse community must have a common vocabulary. The research reported in this paper has three objectives: (1) to create a taxonomy using two documents written by noted authors within the field of cultural literacy. The intention is to have this taxonomy produce a gradual development of a common vocabulary for an evolving discourse community; (2) to determine whether this common vocabulary contains matching words or terms; and (3) to begin to classify these tenns. The importance of this exploratory study is two-fold. First, examination of the taxonomy may establish a measure of uniformity within the discourse community. Second, the results will determine whether further research is warranted. Advances in Knowledge Organization, Vo1.9 (2004), p.55-59 56 2. Cu lt ural literacy: E.D. Hirsch and Walter Ong Toward the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s the term "Cultural Literacy" became synonymolls with two authors in particular, E.D. Hirsch and Walter 1. Ong. Cng's book, titled Orality and Literacy, Tile Teclmologizing of the Word, first published in 1982, and Hirsch's book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, first published in 1987, were and are, to this day, perhaps the two most influential works in the field of cultural literacy. It was for this reason that Hirsch and Ong were chosen for this study. E. D. Hirsch's ideas were set forth in the early 70s. Hirsch first published his ideas in Tile Journal of Basic Writing under "C ulture and Literacy." Hirsch focused sharply on the background knowledge necessary for functional literacy and effective national communication. According to Hirsch (1987), "A merican literacy has been declining at a time when our changed economy requires that our literacy should rise." Walter Ong (1982) addressed the intellectual, literacy and social effects of writing, as well as of print and electronic technology, and traces the heavy oral residue that marks literature and thought until very recent times. Ong also assesses some effects that the new knowledge of orality-literacy contrasts is having, or is destined to have, on literacy criticism and theory, including structuralism and deconstruction, on speech-art theory and reader­ response theory, on media studies, the social sciences, philosophy and biblical studies, and on our understanding of what it is to be a human being, conscious and other. As previously stated, cultural literacy is defined as the social role of information within, between and across cultures. Cultural literacy, both oral and chirographic, is viewed as the social role that transcends cultures. Oral tradition, classical literacy and technology have the power to maintain cultural identity within diverse societies. Culture' s evolving patterns of human interaction are subject to change. The characterization by Ong (1982, 71-72) according to O' Keefe (2002) that the resulting changes in language and culture are "a shift from the active, participatory world of orality to the linear, static world of print" reflects the natural progression from orality, the spoken word, to literacy, a method of recording information. Hirsch (1982) describes the importance of inform<l.tion's role in cultural literacy-people organize background knowledge that they accumulate through thoughts, ideas and information about the world. Information is the catalyst that transforms culture's collective understanding (Ong, 1982; Hirsch, 1987). Today, information links not only groups within the cultures but across cultures too (O'Keefe, 2002). Hirsch (1987) explains that knowledge is organized when people learn either by sharing cultural knowledge or by creating new knowledge. When cultural knowledge doesn't exist, states Hirsh (1987, 8), "a lack of wide­ ranging background information among young men and women now in their twenties and thirties is an important cause of the illiteracy that large corporations are finding in their middle-level executives." Hirsch (1987, 9) also notes, "If young people meet as strangers, their communications resemble uncertainty." Awareness of cultural knowledge enhances communication, removes uncertainty, and allows the creation of new knowledge, which becomes the foundation needed in organization (Hirsch, 1987). Hirsch's central concern is that we all have the ability to communicate with each other. According to Hirsch (1987, 51), "This finding suggests that we hold in our minds typical exemplars or prototypes of the category of words we use and that these prototypes constitute the usual furniture of our minds." Further, he states, "They are the classifications of things we use every day and keep at the ready in perception, conversation, reading, and writing. " Eleanor Rosch was instrumental in defining these classification categories according to Hirsch (1987, 49). Rosch noted basic classifications were how people understood the world (O'Keefe, 2002). Rosch (Hirsch, 1987, 49) stated that the most referred-to categories were middle or "basic-level terms." It is these "basic level terms" that best describe a discourse 57 community. Taxonomy is the knowledge organization tool that can be used to demonstrate relationships among a discourse community. Therefore, a common vocabulary may be realized through taxonomy. 3. Methodology In this exploratory study, terms and phrases were selected from both documents written by Walter 1. Dog and E.D. Hirsch. The construction of this taxonomy is presented in sequence: I began by extracting words and small groupings of words that seemed to relate to the authors' context. One thousand words were extracted from each document. Words were extracted from documents manually. Microsoft Excel was used to list all the terms alphabetically. The two lists were colour-coded and sorted according to author (Table I.). After examination of the terms for spelling, duplicates and general acceptance into the taxonomy, a combined list of 1,750 terms existed. Oug Hirsch ability Ability abstract abstract skills abstract categorization Absurdity abstract classification accepted literacy abstract thought Account abstraction Acculturation abstract-manual style Acculturation academic practice Acculturative academically educated acculturative responsibility accommodation Accuracy accretion Accuracy achievement accurate memory acoustic surrogates accurate recall acquaintanceship accurately remembered action Achieve actual habitat active participant actuality Addition additive structure Adjustment address adult-level administration advanced technology administrative advanced vocabulary knowledge aggregative tendencies Age Alphabet Age Alphabet Allusions Alphabet Alphabetical alphabetic literacy Altogether alphabetic writing American education Altogether Americans anachronistic Analogous Table 1. Sorted and colour-coded taxonomy (sample) Once colour-coded, sorted, and combined, a search for the matching terms ensued. This consisted of visually checking the alphabetically sorted,
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