Do you file, sort, arrange, sequence, alphabetise or alphanumericise your entries?
A recent discussion on Index-L highlighted the different ways that indexers describe the ways they put index entries in order.
File the papers, sort the washing, and put the entries in alphanumeric arrangement.
Filing: Wellisch (1st edn.) describes this as a broad term, encompassing alphabetic order as well as computer sort orders; but other people feel it should refer to something you do physically with papers or library catalogue cards. While I think you might ‘file’ cards, if you talk about ‘filing order’ the relevent part is the decisions made about the order in which you put the cards. It is interesting that this word has retained paper connotations, whereas many other words have readily morphed to online meanings - consider e-commerce shopping carts, for example.
Sorting: Wellisch (1st edn.) describes sorting as applying to computer sort order. People on Index-L felt that it shouldn’t matter who or what did the sorting - nonetheless, computer sort order is more likely to rely on ‘sort algorithms’, and may use rules such as ASCII order rather than straight alphabetical order. Yet other people felt that sorting meant categorising, as in ‘sort the clothes from the washing basket’. Both the computer sorting and the categorisation meaning are supported by general English dictionaries.
Alphabetisation: This term has a narrower meaning than filing because it does not include sequencing of symbols and numbers, nor special filing orders such as chronological order. In practice the word is applied to alphabetisation of entries such as St when they are filed out of order as if written in full, but Mulvany (2nd edn) indexes these as subheadings under the heading ‘non-alphabetic arrangements (which makes sense).
Alphanumeric arrangement: The simple extension of alphabetisation broadens the term to include numbers, but still excludes chronological sequences (and strictly speaking, also excludes arrangement of symbols).
Arrangement of entries: This works as a broad catch-all phrase similar to ‘filing order’, although it doesn’t appear to be commonly used in casual discussions.
At the 2007 ANZSI conference, I asked indexers which of these terms they used, but there was no consensus.
Does it matter? In daily conversation the variations in usage don’t seem to cause any problems, as the context makes meaning clear, and we are usually talking in the broad sense of ‘ordering entries’ no matter what we call it. But it does matter to people who are writing about indexing, and want to make their language clear and consistent. It also matters if we have lost alternative meanings - if ‘sorting’ is used simply as a synonym of ‘filing’ or ‘ordering’, then we have lost the two alternative uses of arrangement by a computer sort algorithm, or categorising into useful groups.
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