INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MEANINGS AND EXCLUSION OF SUBJECTS IN THE THESAURUS OF THE UNITED NATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

Abstract

This study analyzes, from the theoretical and methodological perspective of discourse analysis, how thesaurus contribute to the institutionalization of certain meanings and how these instruments of knowledge organization can exclude subjects. The discourse analysis was conducted on the terms LATIN AMERICANS and LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN in the United Nations Bibliographic Information System Thesaurus, a multilingual thesaurus whose terms are found in the official languages of the United Nations, namely Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. In this analytical journey, the notion of thesaurus by Clarinda Rodrigues Lucas, a researcher in knowledge organization and discourse analysis, was taken up.  The Organization for Standardization's (ISO) concept of multilingual thesaurus and Michèle Hudon's research on multilingualism in knowledge organization were also taken into account. Supported by a statistical discourse, the thesaurus of the United Nations Bibliographic Information System has a very limited number of official languages, generating exclusion of subjects who do not use the so-called "official languages". Furthermore, by resuming the historical discourse on Latin America, it was possible to verify that the analyzed terms materialize meanings that exclude, for example, Portuguese speakers.

Keywords: Thesaurus; Subject; Meaning; Multilingualism; Discourse Analysis.