ontolog-forum
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ontolog-forum] What is Data? What is a Datum? 2013-01-09-0930

To: <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Ed Barkmeyer <edbark@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:45:06 -0500
Message-id: <50F04192.5030506@xxxxxxxx>
Kingsley,    (01)

I generally agree.  A proposition is a sentence.  Technically,  the 
general notion of 'sentence' includes "modalities": declarative, 
interrogative, imperative, hortative.  So if your logic includes enough 
modalities, every sentence is a proposition.  I think you are talking 
about "declarative sentences", when you refer to "statements".    (02)

But making a sentence/proposition into a 'datum' requires one more 
element -- the acceptance that the proposition is true.  A 'datum' is a 
proposition that is taken to be true.  Interestingly, however, when one 
deals with "outlier data" in a statistical analysis, one asks whether 
there is some uncontrolled variable or the outliers are "dubious 
observations", i.e., propositions that might not actually be true as 
reported.    (03)

I also agree, BTW, that a paragraph is just a small corpus -- a 
collection of 1 or more sentences/propositions.  And 'data' is a 
collection of propositions that we take to be (simultaneously) true.    (04)

BTW, we are not distinguishing here between the mental proposition (the 
"meaning") and its expression, but that seems to be a big issue to other 
contributors.  That is, they see a 'sentence' as a particular form of 
expression, which is, for example, distinct from a table of values.  In 
John's example, a telephone directory is not a collection of grammatical 
sentences, but the meaning of each entry in the directory is a 
proposition/datum.  So we really have to be careful how we use these words.    (05)

In my view, a table for which you don't know how to interpret a row is 
not 'data'; it is just an image.  It might as well be a JPEG of a 
drawing.  One might say that it is 'data' in the sense that the 
interpretation is "In row 3, column B is 5", but then that is a sentence.    (06)

-Ed    (07)

On 1/11/2013 10:35 AM, Kingsley Idehen wrote:
> <snip>
> So building on the above, a Sentence is a Datum.  Likewise, a Paragraph
> is Data.
> The paragraph above expressed in Turtle notation as:
>
> <#Sentence> <#sameAs> <#Datum> .
> <#Paragraph> <#sameAs> <#Data> .
>
> Or with more specificity:
>
> <#Proposition> <#kindOf> <#Sentence> .
> <#Statement> <#kindOf> <#Sentence> .
> <#Proposition> <#sameAs> <#Statement> .
> <#Proposition> <#sameAs> <#Datum> .
> <#Statement> <#sameAs> <#Datum> .
> <#Paragraph> <#sameAs> <#Data> .
>    (08)

-- 
Edward J. Barkmeyer                        Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx
National Institute of Standards & Technology
Systems Integration Division, Engineering Laboratory
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263                Tel: +1 301-975-3528
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263                Cel: +1 240-672-5800    (09)

"The opinions expressed above do not reflect consensus of NIST,
  and have not been reviewed by any Government authority."    (010)



_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Config Subscr: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
To join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J    (011)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>