"Meaning" is an ambiguous term, even to logicians who have several,
non-equivalent ways to define it. (01)
The fallacy in this discussion is that several parties are using different
senses of the term "meaning". Bill asks the presumed rhetorical question -
"Meaning" is a human phenomenon - isn't it? But this question is not at all
rhetorical. Meaning in much human discourse has a lot of what linguistics
have called "pragmatic" content, and this content differs from person to
person and situation to situation, even when a single utterance is the
source of the interpretation. (02)
The real discussion is whether there are situations in human-human and
human-machine interaction where richness in pragmatic content and semantic
variability are undesirable. I believe that there are such situations:
emergency communications, legal contracts, and factual scientific
communications to name a few. And, I believe that formal ontologies are
appropriate for use in these situations. I do not believe that an ontology
is helpful in communicating with my teenage sons. (03)
Thanks, Jim (04)
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Burkett,
William [USA]
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 8:51 AM
To: edbark@xxxxxxxx; [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontologies as social mediators (05)
Ed: (06)
I agree with you that: (07)
>The underlying concern here is that all of the social communications
>cues are utterly absent in a formal ontology. (08)
But the following: (09)
>It means exactly what it says and only what it says. (010)
Does not make sense without considering (at least a limited) social setting.
The ontology means absolutely nothing if there is no human (or his/her
software surrogate) to interpret it. "Meaning" is a human phenomenon -
isn't it? (Okay: sentient phenomenon - my cat correctly interprets (i.e.,
derives meaning from) my actions when I pick up his food dish, but I doubt
he's worried about ontologies.) (011)
Bill (012)
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