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Qualifiers
Qualifiers are words or phrases added to a heading or subheading to clarify its meaning or to distinguish among homographs. They may or may not be enclosed in parentheses, as these examples demonstrate:
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abstracts (abridgments), ... abstracts (pharmaceutical mixtures), ... Hippocrates ("Father of Medicine"), ... Hippocrates of Chios, ... Louis VIII, ... Louis IX, ... |
Qualifiers are often used in relation to personal names, where homographs (including surnames and forenames) are common. For example:
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Alfonso II ("the Chaste," 759?-842), ... Alfonso II ("the Chaste," 1152-1196), ... Rockefeller, John Davision (1839-1937), ... Rockefeller, John Davision, Jr. (1874-1960), ... Rockefeller, John Davision III (1906-1978), ... Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (Seneca the Elder), ... Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (Seneca the Younger), ... |
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Hamilton, James, d. 1479, ... Hamilton, James, b. 1530, ... Hamilton, James, b. 1606, ... |
Another use is to help identify things or people identified only by a forename or surname in the text. For example:
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Buddy (Lord Wyndham's pug), ... Kitty (Lady Wyndham's lover), ... |
In biographies, qualifiers are often used to specify the relationship between a person and the main subject or a person and others discussed in the text. For example:
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Smith, Amy (Justin's daughter), ... Smith, Avery (Justin's son), ... Smith, Eustace (Justin's father), ... Smith, Henrietta (Justin's wife), ... Smith, Justin, ... Smith, Olivia (Eustace's wife), ... Sunshine, Penelope (Justin's mother, Olivia's maid), ... |
They may also be used to distinguish between corporate entities having the same name. For example:
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Labour Party, Australian (ALP), ... Labour Party, Ireland, ... Labour Party, Israel, ... Labour Party, UK, ... |
Place names may be contextualized by adding the state, province, country or geographic area in which the place is located. For example:
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Berlin, East, ... Berlin, West, ... Berlin (Connecticut), ... Berlin (Germany), ... Thames (river, Connecticut), ... Thames (river, England), ... |
Titles and topical headings may be disambiguated using qualifiers. For example:
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cells (prisons), ... cells (terrorism), ... Faust (Goethe), ... Faust (Gounod), ... |
Acronyms and initialisms used in the text may need qualifiers to be understood. For example:
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UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française, Union for French Democracy), ... UNITA (União Nacional par a Independêcia Total de Angola, National Union for the Complete Independence of Angola),... |
Similarly, neologisms and words given new meanings may also need them to be understood.
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nerds (socially inept, unattractive, unstylish people), ... pimpmobiles (ostentatious luxury cars), ... worms (in computers), ... |
Guidelines for using qualifiers:
- Use qualifiers to eliminate ambiguity. That is their primary purpose.
- Take context into account. Do not add qualifiers if the context provides them. For example: in a history of England, an entry for Richard II does not need a qualifier identifying him as a king of England.
- Be consistent where appropriate. For example: if towns or cities are qualified by states, either spell out all state names or abbreviate them using the standard state abbreviations or state postal codes.
- Omit lengthy qualifiers from cross-references if doing so does not introduce ambiguity. For example: See also UDF is likely to be okay; See also UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française, Union for French Democracy) is likely to be overkill.