Proximity
operators are words and/or
symbols that a searcher uses to indicate that two or more search
words or phrases occur:
Within a certain distance of
each other in either direction.
Within a certain distance of
each other in one or the other direction.
Do not occur within a certain
distance of either other.
Usage
Proximity
operatorsare
useful because we often know that certain words occur close to
each other in the kinds of information we are searching for.
Examples:
If we are looking for an
article on feline leukemia, we know that those two words may be
within a few words of each other in a sentence, a la, "The
fastest way to diagnose any form of leukemia in any
particular member of the feline family is ...." The
words feline and leukemia are within seven words
of each other.
We know that it is common
usage for people to say something like, "They raise horses and
cows" but also "They raise cows and about a dozen thoroughbred
Arabian horses."
But using proximity requires
that:
We think about how (different
people, different ages, different professions, different levels
of education, different cultural backgrounds, and so forth) use
language.
We think about the structure
of language, including: noun-verb-object
Examples
In certain databases, if we
wanted documents about people who raise both horses and
cows, we might enter our search as:
horses
near cows
Note: In AltaVista
"near"
is within 10 words in either direction.
horses(8w)cows
Note: This is a
format [#w]
used in Dialog-hosted databases for findwing a word (cows)
within 8 words after
another word (horses).
horses(8n)cows
Note: This is a
format [#n]
used in Dialog-hosted databases for findwing a word (cows)
within 8 words in
either direction
from another word (horses).