Dear Mitch (01)
> > According to that definition the Okavango is not a river.
>
> The Okavango surely is a strange kind of river.
>
> Do you really expect to hold natural language to the same strictness
> standards as formal ones?
>
> Pardon the following longish entertainment. You can get the point
> stopping
> after any paragraph.
> Yes, it's fiction, so it is meaningless but evocative. (02)
[MW] Actually this refers to a quite important kind of object, those that
are what they are because we deem them to be so. Sometimes known as
intentionally constructed. Recognising this arbitrariness when it applies
can save a lot of heartache. (03)
Regards (04)
Matthew West
Information Junction
Tel: +44 560 302 3685
Mobile: +44 750 3385279
matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/ (05)
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>
> ----
> From 'Master and Commander' (Patrick O'Brian)
>
> (Stephen Maturin, the ship's physician:) 'There is only one thing I
> don't
> care
> for , however' he said as the order was passed reverently round the
> table, 'and that is this foolish insistence on the word
> surgeon. "Do hereby appoint you surgeon...take upon you
> the employment of surgeon.. together with such allowance for
> wages and victuals for yourself as is usual for the surgeon
> of the said sloop." It is a false description and a false description
> is anathema to the philosophical mind.'
>
> 'I am sure it is anathema to the philosophical mind.' said James
> Dillon. 'But the naval mind fairly revels in it, so it does. Take
> that word sloop, for example.'
>
> 'Yes,' said Stephen, narrowing his eyes through the haze of port
> and trying to remember the definitions he had heard.
>
> 'Why, now, a sloop , as you know, is properly a one-masted vessel,
> with a fore-and-aft rig,. But in the Navy a sloop may be ship rigged
> - she may have three masts.'
>
> 'Or take the Sophie,' cried the master, anxious to bring
> his crumb of comfort. 'She's rightly a brig, you know, Doctor, with
> her to masts.' He held up two fingers, in case a landman might not
> fully comprehend so great a number. 'But the minute Captain Aubrey
> sets foot in her, why, she too becomes a sloop; for a brig is a
> lieutenant's command.'
>
> 'Or take me,' said Jack. 'I am called captain, but really I am
> only a master and commander.'
>
> 'Or the place where the men sleep, just for'ard,' said the purser,
> pointing. 'Rightly speaking, and official, 'tis the gun-deck, though
> there's never a gun on it. We call it the spar-deck - though there's
> no spars, neither - but some say the gun-deck still, and call the
> right gun-deck the upper-deck. Or take this brig, which is no true
> brig at all, not with her square mainsail, but rather a sorts of
> snow, or a hermaphrodite.'
>
> 'No,no my dear sir,' said James Dillon, 'never let a mere word
> grieve you heart. We have nominal captains' servants who are , in
> fact, midshipmen; we have nominal able seamen on our books who are
> scarcely breeched - they are a thousand miles away and still at
> school; we swear we have not shifted any backstays, when we shift them
> continually; and we take many under oaths that nobody believes-no, no
> you may call yourself as you please, so long as you do your duty. The
> Navy speaks in symbols, and you may suit what meaning you choose to
> the words.'
> ----
>
> What's the point? Maybe formalization of natural language terms need to
> follow a non-monotonic default logic? 'river' has a bunch of necessary
> defaults, which the Okavango doesn't match entirely, and so an
> exception
> subclass is made for 'non-emptying river'. I wouldn't be surprised if
> the
> geomorphologists have already come up with appropriate appellations.
>
> Mitch
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> > Mike Bennett
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 2:06 PM
> > To: [ontolog-forum]
> > Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] a skill of definition - "river"
> >
> >
> > According to that definition the Okavango is not a river.
> >
> > So it is a good example around the issues. Are stretches
> > really "Parts"
> > of a river for example?
> >
> > I guess it's possible to set out too many characteristics of
> > something,
> > rather than just those things which, by virtue of being true of an
> > individual, make it a member of that class of thing.
> >
> > There are also some interesting mappings between things known
> > as a River
> > in English, and the terms in French for similarly river-like things.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > Александр Шкотин wrote:
> > > John has ask for "river" definition (n-s-conditions).
> > >
> > > I am on a way, and have a look at this one from
> > > http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/ontology/
> > >
> > > Well, this is a topographical point of view, and only n-conditions,
> > > but looks good (in Protege;):
> > >
> > > http://clip2net.com/clip/m3050/1234375380-clip-16kb.png
> > >
> > > Alex
>
>
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