Alexander Mikhailian wrote:
>> My point here is that a Topic Map should not be considered
>> more precise than the use of natural language that forms its
>> constructs
>
> I guess you presume that topic names contain natural language
> text. It would be interesting to see whether this statement
> is agreed upon in the topic maps community.
> [...]
My presumption is that the vast majority of Topic Maps contain Topic
names, a Topic characteristic typically expressed in natural language.
Given that I am demonstrably a card-carrying member of the Topic Maps
community and can speak with some authority on at least the intentions
of the original XTM 1.0 team, I might clarify that we certainly did
intend that Topic names be expressed in the form of natural language
(and all examples in the XTM specifications have always been in natural
language). While alternatives are possible (e.g., icons), in practice
I've never seen anything but natural language nouns, noun phrases, or
predicates. It would be interesting to see if there is any disagreement
about this issue in the Topic Maps community.
You seem to have posited your response on some assumption that when
I mentioned natural language I meant a natural language grammar; I
intended no such thing, nor does this have anything to do with a
natural language grammar (or syntax). The only concept of a grammar
that might be implied (though it was not my intention) might be that
of the logic expressed by the associations between topics, e.g.,
statements of predicate logic (or whatever form of logic is intended
by the author). But that is an entirely different subject.
This is not a matter of linguistics but of semantics and epistemology.
My intension was to suggest that the lack of precision was not in the
semantics per se but in the foundationalist epistemology of the
semantic expressions. Next time I will be more explicit.
Murray
...........................................................................
Murray Altheim <murray07 at altheim.com> === = =
http://www.altheim.com/murray/ = = ===
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