[topicmaps-comment] linguist's question

[gbedja@home.com]

As a linguist, I'm trying to figure out ways in which topic maps can
interplay with words.

Is my thinking technically correct?

1. I declare 2 topics: 'information' and 'need'
2. Then I describe their association, which is of 'phrase' type
3. Then I reify the association as the 'information need' topic
4. As a result, I have 'constructed' a topic from two other topics and
I can use the new topic in the same ways as the 'primary' topics, but
it has 'inner association' with the other two, and through them with
other topics.

1.
<topic id="information">
    <baseName>
      <baseNameString>information</baseNameString>
    </baseName>
</topic>

<topic id="need">
    <baseName>
      <baseNameString>need</baseNameString>
    </baseName>
</topic>

2.
<association id="information-need">
    <instanceOf>
      <topicRef xlink:href="#phrase"/>
    </instanceOf>
    <member>
      <roleSpec>
         <topicRef xlink:href="#1st-part-of-phrase"/>
      </roleSpec>
         <topicRef xlink:href="#information"/>
    </member>
    <member>
      <roleSpec>
         <topicRef xlink:href="#2nd-part-of-phrase"/>
      </roleSpec>
         <topicRef xlink:href="#need"/>
    </member>
</association>

3.
<topic id="information-need-topic">
    <subjectIdentity>
      <subjectIndicatorRef xlink:href="#information-need"/>
    </subjectIdentity>
    <baseName>
      <baseNameString>information need</baseNameString>
    </baseName>
</topic>

Thanks,
Gen Bedjanian