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Re: [ontolog-forum] LInked Data meme revisited

To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:11:08 -0500
Message-id: <52AB4DBC.8060208@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Dear Matthew, Ed, Kingsley, Axel, and Doug,    (01)

The notes in this thread touch on the multiple roles of signs.    (02)

MW
> I realized that it's highly probable that [Kingsleyl meant:
>
> [EJB] "A term is (*in addition to being a word*) a point of reference,
> whereas a word is only a constituent of language.  Hence, all terms are
> words, but only some words can be terms. A term *refers to* something,
> either *abstract* or *concrete*."    (03)

Yes, but some discussion of signs may be helpful:    (04)

  1. Any sign can be a point of reference, but some are more convenient
     for certain kinds of applications -- e.g., linking data on the WWW.    (05)

  2. Two of Peirce's most widely cited triads:    (06)

     a) Mark (uninterpreted perceptible phenomenon), Token (mark that has
        has been interpreted as an instance of a type), and Type (general
        principle for relating marks that are similar in some way).    (07)

     b) Icon (perceptible pattern whose structure resembles the object
        of the sign in some way), Index (sign that points to or links to
        its object), and Symbol (sign with a conventional or habitual
        association with its object).    (08)

  3. The comment about words depends critically on the definition of
     'word'.  When comparing languages, linguists prefer to talk about
     morphemes, because every language-independent definition of 'word'
     gets bogged down in the huge syntactic differences among languages.    (09)

  4. Peirce emphasized that the object of every sign is another sign.
     The ones we call concrete are associated with perceptible patterns
     of phenomena we have observed or could observe.    (010)

  5. But we can talk about perceptible patterns of "things" that no one
     has yet observed -- e.g., unicorns or plans for cars, houses, and
     airplanes that have not been built.    (011)

MW
> the term “composition” in a defined context has one meaning, even
> though the word “composition” generally has many.    (012)

That's true of every word.  In the five points above, I used the more
general term 'pattern' to avoid the many questions about who or what
might be "composing" something.    (013)

AP
> The stress of the usage of URIs to identify things in Linked Data is
> not about complete disambiguation.    (014)

I agree.  But I would emphasize that (a) signs of any kind identify
something, (b) different interpreters can interpret the same mark
in different ways for different purposes, and (c) no sign, not even
a URI, can or should be interpreted by all interpreters in the same
way in all contexts and circumstances.    (015)

AP
> the usage of structure (RDF) and named identifiers (URIs) shall restrict
> the number of possible interpretations… not more, not less; plus: theadded
> value of URIs & HTTP enabling reuse and linkage and a certain degree of  > 
>control of identifiers (since URIs have ownership through pay level 
domains).
> I think that's quite a good starting point.    (016)

I agree.  But there are many good starting points for many purposes.    (017)

KI
> I am trying to demystify Linked Data. Basically, I've always believed
> that its underlying principles can be explained in a variety of ways.    (018)

I agree.    (019)

Tweets, hashtags, and folksonomies are also useful for many purposes.
I don't want to defend or criticize them.  I'm sure that there will be
many, many new systems that people will invent in the next 20 years.    (020)

DMcD
> A term can consist of multiple words.  Or maybe best identified as
> a "lexical unit" as defined in Cruse, 1986.    (021)

Alan Cruse is a linguist who published many books and articles about
the issues in this thread.  I often cite the word 'microsense', which
he coined for the small shifts in meaning of "lexical units".    (022)

John    (023)

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