Re: [xtm-wg] Simplification and clarification of XTM - Editors please read...

["Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@home.com>]

Sam Hunting wrote -

> [luis]
> > I think you are missing the distinction between "is subject" and
> > "describes subject"
>
> If correct that's a problem. That distinction is pretty deeply
embedded
> at this point. In the design, the syntax, the documentation, the
> images...
>
> OK, back to work....
>
Yes, such a distinction is fundamental in natural languages and many or
most conceptual modeling systems.  Consider the statement

"That dog is black."

Black modifies the subject, which is "that dog".  "Black" is not a
subject of this statement.  In fact, it is not even a noun, but a
modifier.  In another statement, black might be the subject.  Perhaps
that would be in a different topic map.  It's true that "black"
corresponds to some concept (or subject or topic, I suppose).  But the
key point here is its relationship to the subject.  If you conflate "is
subject" with "describes subject", you miss this vital area.

Since topics are said to represent "subjects",  I consider that they are
like subjects in sentences.  A verb phrase could be the subject, as in

"Running a mile is tiring."

Thus, we could have topics that are labeled by a verb phrase.  Of
course, this is somewhat dependent on which natural language you are
using.

As I said in an earlier post, I thought that the point of occurrances
was to provide a way to link a topic to information resources about it.
No need to formally convert the resource to a subject if it's not
playing that role.  If it is, we've already got the machinery to do so.

Cheers,

Tom Passin


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/337252/_/975639306/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

To Post a message, send it to:   xtm-wg@eGroups.com

To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: xtm-wg-unsubscribe@eGroups.com