Concept lattice formalisms of Hébert’s “semic analysis” and “analysis by classification”

Abstract In this article we provide a mathematical frame to the generation of class taxonomies suggested by Hébert in his analysis of the poem << Quelle affaire! >> (‘A Sorry Business!’) by Gilles Vigneault (b. 1928) as well as a formalization of the structure of semic isotopies in his reading of The golden ship by Émile Nelligan (1879–1941). We also examine the characteristics of inter- and intra-semic molecules at work within Réne Magritte’s painting La clef des songes . Our mathematical frame is Ganter and Wille’s extension of lattice theory called formal concept analysis , for which we explore various formalisms and constructs that allow us to reason on semic structures.