- From: Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us>
- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:45:28 -0600
- To: "John McClure" <jmcclure@hypergrove.com>
- Cc: "Kaarel Kaljurand" <kaljurand@gmail.com>, "Dan Connolly" <connolly@w3.org>, "Anne Cregan" <annec@cse.unsw.edu.au>, <public-owl-dev@w3.org>
> >-----Original Message----- >>From: public-owl-dev-request@w3.org >>[mailto:public-owl-dev-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Kaarel Kaljurand >>Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:58 AM >>To: Dan Connolly >>Cc: Anne Cregan; public-owl-dev@w3.org >>Subject: Re: OWL "Sydney Syntax", structured english >> ><snip/> >>No, the expectation is that every propertyname is a transitive English >>verb, rather than a noun. There are studies that seem to indicate that >>this is the case in reality, see e.g.: > > http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~cmellish/papers/kbs05.pdf ><snip/> > >Hmm. > >While I personally and professionally support the aims of a structured english >syntax, I am wondering when the RDF community will align their practices with >those of XML standards communities, which seem 100% to eschew the use of verbs >as property-names. WHY?? Properties relate things together. One makes an assertion, typically, by connecting two things with a property name. In English one makes an assertion by writing a sentence. Grammatical sentences must contain a main verb. It seems natural to link the verb with the property. It is impossible to create a 'natural' English rendering which has no verbs at all. > The UN/CEFACT naming standards for instance, use nouns in >all cases. My concern is that this community's singular use of verbs, whether >compounded with nouns or not, continues to unnecessarily alienate the rest of >the development world. RDF is intended for use by a vastly larger audience, however. > To me, this is a topic that needs to be addressed by the >W3C because it was RDF's original specifications which started this truly >onerous practice without a shred of rationale. To me, the restriction to nouns would need some supporting rationale. How can one express a proposition using only nouns? My mother's name is Betty. What does one say? Betty Motherhood Pat? > And the paper cited above hardly >finds that a standard practice exists for naming RDF properties There shouldn't be a standard practice for naming properties, IMO. There are just too many properties around. >-- gee, both >RDF and OWL themselves even have issues in this regard! What issues? Pat Hayes > >John McClure -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- IHMC (850)434 8903 or (650)494 3973 home 40 South Alcaniz St. (850)202 4416 office Pensacola (850)202 4440 fax FL 32502 (850)291 0667 cell phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes
Received on Wednesday, 29 November 2006 18:45:47 UTC