[xtm-wg] Communicating with coherent ontology (in English and other languages)

["Bernard VATANT" <b.vatant@wanadoo.fr>]

Jack pointed out the emergency to be more acute in the choice of terms, and
decide clearly e.g. what we mean by *scope* or *domain* or *range* or
*field* or
*context* or whatever. We had in another list a more or less converging
debate with Jack and others about what a *context* is - or may be - which
convinced me at least of one thing : semantics are still a bit fuzzy here.
See : http://www.infoloom.com/pipermail/topicmapmail/2000q4/thread.html
Another emergency seems to be external communication and marketing.
The two problems are linked : it seems difficult to market a concept if we
do not dispose of a definite coherent
language to speak about it. Consider a use case like the following :

I'm not a native English speaker
I'm quite newbie in the TM context/range/domain/scope (pick your choice)
but know enough about it to consider it as the best tool in projects I'm
involved in (should I ?)
I'm consultant for two ongoing projects. One is collaborative,
multicultural and multilinguistic and deals with sharing of knowledge and
experiences in a *wide-range scope*, and one is regional (France, Southern
Alps).
Assume my line is to explain that tools based on the TM spec are the best
choice for these projects (don't tell me they are not !) but my partners
don't know the first word about it, and our basic communication language is
French.

There is no official French terminology about TM as far as I know .
It's not obvious anyway we have in French a clear equivalent of the English
distinction between "topic" and "subject", both being translated by
"sujet", or even "thème" ... so what shall I do with "theme" ... it drives
me crazy ! Same problem, or worse, with context / range / domain / scope
 contexte / champ / domaine / portée / étendue ?)
These abstracts terms have in natural language very fuzzy semantic extents
which are not completely portable, unless, as Jack suggests, we agree over
some mathematical definitions. The problem is that precise mathematical
definitions refer to some metalanguage to be written in and understood, and
that the TM concepts are already set in the upper possible level of
metalanguage (that's what they are up to anyway), so IMO their basic
definitions if any can't be other than recursive and "bootstrapping".
Ann's formal attempt with set theory could lead us to rules readable by any
mathematician, and it would be interesting to translate them (I can try to
make it into French whenever she decides she has some settled version), but
are these formal rules able to set clear semantics portable into "natural
languages" we'll have to pass through somehow to get to users, customers,
press releases, papers and such ?
All that leads me back to the previously quoted debate over portability of
concepts outside their original language and *context*, and the
interoperability between languages and contexts. I think this problem is
important enough to justify a working multilinguistic team, aiming at clear
definition of basic terms, not only the technical terms of the spec, but
the "natural language" used to speak about it, and recommendations for
their translation in any language where one is bound to communicate and
explain the TM concepts (beginning with some common languages on the Web
e.g german, french, spanish ...). I volunteer to participate in or even
coordinate if necessary a wg on that theme/topic/subject/field.

<recall> Fifty percent of all Internet users are native English speakers
</recall>
Suggestion for the next poll :
"What is the % of (native or non-native) English speakers able to catch the
distinction between scope and context or between subject and topic ?"

Bernard VATANT
b.vatant@wanadoo.fr
www.universimmedia.com


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