Re: [ontolog-forum] "Amy Winehouse is the apotheosis and nadir of post-m

["Richard H. McCullough" <rhm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see below

Dick McCullough
http://mkrmke.org

----- Original Message -----

From: <ra33@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> >
> But what seems a key issue is the boundary between the text/manuscript
> in which it appears and the greater sphere of all of one's knowledge.

> >
> When the gap becomes a chasm (trying to use all of society's collected knowledge
> to interpret single sentences, the problem becomes too intractable (I submit).

 

RHM>

It may require a lot of knowledge, but surely not all knowledge.

You need to identify and name the knowledge.  mKR provides one way to do that:

    at context { sentence; };
Just think of the context as a large footnote -- required for all sentences.

>
> Sincerely,
>     Rob Akscyn
> ********************
>
SB>
>>
>> However, my suggestion revolved round the question of what knowledge one
>> brings (and might be expected to bring) to understanding a statement. For a
>> worked example, I return to "Amy Winehouse is the apotheosis and nadir of
>> post-modern femininity".
>>
>> Obviously, the formalization and evaluation of such a phrase is outside the
>> remit of this forum. However, the fact that there is an outside implies that
>> the scope needs demarkating in some way. Historically, this seems to have
>> been done by insisting on the properties of formal representation, that is,
>> what is considered to be an ontology. However, for external comprehension,
>> that boundary also needs to be articulated in terms of the relation between,
>> on one hand, formalisations which (confusingly) use natural language terms
>> as labels and on the other, natural language, which does not have a formal
>> semantics, and, in fact, thrives on ambigity, allusion and connotation.

 

RHM>

I think John Sowa has the right idea -- use controlled natural language. 

mKR is my attempt to create an appropriate language.
>>
>> Having this distinction between ontologies and natural language clear
>> expressed would help enormously in set the right expectations about what can
>> be delivered by the semantic wed in general, and ontologies in particular.
>> Over to you.
>>
>> Sean Barker
>> Bristol, UK
>>
>>

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