Standardization and refinement of encyclopedic definitional sentences: A case study of the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture

This study addresses inconsistencies and descriptive limitations in the definitional sentences of the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (Minbaek) and proposes strategies for their standardization and refinement. After reviewing Minbaek’s compilation framework and existing guidelines, the analysis focuses on three areas: (1) the alignment between definitions and metadata; (2) consistency in the use of genus; and (3) formal and descriptive variations among same-series entries. Using the manually annotated results from the 2021 definition-cleaning project as a reference dataset, this research applies rule-based automated analysis to the latest Minbaek data. The results indicate that inconsistencies in temporal data, metadata, and genus terms extend beyond individual sentences, ultimately undermining the conceptual coherence and information organization across entry groups and same-series entries. By integrating manual annotation with rule-based automated analysis, this study presents a systematic method for inspecting and managing definitional sentences in large-scale encyclopedias.