{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.01366120218579235, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.3895348837209305, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Expression and Meaning of Medical Language: Building an Epistemological Framework for the Study of Semantic Distance

The use of language for communication purposes introduces a semantic gap in data processing. We have developed a new tool called semantic distance to overcome this gap. A previous presentation of our tool was based on an empirical approach. Here, we examine the properties and theoretical foundation of semantic distance from a rationalistic perspective. We present an epistemological framework to explain the meaning of semantic distance. As a tool, the purpose of semantic distance is the exchange of data or knowledge based on linguistic expressions between software components. We propose a review of the relationship between language and its representation for data processing based on the underlying philosophical assumptions. Description logic is a new paradigm in the medical informatics community to express relations between terms in "is-a" hierarchies. The utility of semantic distance is compared to description logic for communication purposes in different use cases.