Re: [ontolog-forum] Are Predicates a Form of Categorization/Classificati

[William Frank <williamf.frank@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 12:10 PM, Frank Guerino <Frank.Guerino@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi All,

Given the discussions on Category Theory,

Frank, Category Theory is an abstract branch of mathematics, quite distinct from the subject of categorization and classification.   (See Wikipedia on the subject).
 

I was curious if the community views Predicates as a form of categorization/classification.

Well, I was taught and that predicate is a part of a sentence in indo-european languages, a syntactic category, a subject and a predicate making up a sentence.   But each predicate matches the semantic category of property, (or unary relation).       Predicates can be things like 'is someone's freind', 'has a dog that is eating a large bone', etc.

And, for each such predicate, there is a of course property so definable.

And, one of the things you can do with a property is use it as a classifier, so that applied to a thing, the thing is classified as having the property or as not.  

I, personally, would take the position of “yes,” as experience shows me that Predicates are a means of categorizing/classifying sets of Relationships.

All of these statements border on the tautological, taught by applying logic to the meanings of the words used, rather than taught by experience.

For example…

If we can categorize/classify a set of Nodes in a Network/Graph as “Mammals”, selecting all mammals would highlight all Nodes in the Network/Graph that comply.

Again, rather than this being a matter to learn from experience, this is just a basic mathematical transformation.
 

Similarly, if we have a Predicate called “Owner”, selecting all Owners would highlight all Relationships in the Network/Graph that comply.

Interestingly, this implies that the label/term “Predicate” is formally recognized as a super-categorization/classification of Relationships contained in a Network/Graph.  In other words, “Predicate” is equivalent to “Relationship Type."  Is there a label or term for super-categorizations/classifications of Nodes in a Network/Graph?  To date, we use the term “Node Type."

Looking forward to your views.

My Best,

Frank

--
Frank Guerino, Chairman
The International Foundation for Information Technology (IF4IT)
http://www.if4it.com
1.908.294.5191 (M)

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