Re: predicates as verbs

Hi Henry

I guess we should not confuse the grammatical kind of the natural language
term used to label the predicate, which is not necessarily a verb

:myCat   :color   :black               (noun)
:myCat   :hasColor   :black         (verb)
:myCat   :colored  :black            (adjective)

... with the underlying semantics of the triple : a sentence in which the
predicate is in the verb position and carries more or less explicitly the
function of a verb
And I think this is the point of Paola question.

The label used, if it's not a verb, is most of the time (always?) a shortcut
(ellipse) for a more verbose (verbal) form, even in your example


(2 2) plus 4.
>

is a shortcut for

 (2 2)  'has result by addition'  4

or any other similar expression using "yields" "gives", whatever ...

I don't see any predicate making sense which cannot be expanded in natural
language into a verbal expression, at least in languages I know of, close to
english in their use of verbal forms. French does not differ on this.
A triple is an assertion. Verbs are the natural way to make assertions. At
least that's what I've be taught in my village school in France back in the
50's. "A well-formed sentence contains a verb."
Granted that was the time of ink and quills, but ...

Cheers

Bernard


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Bernard Vatant
Senior Consultant
Vocabulary & Data Engineering
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Mail:     bernard.vatant@mondeca.com
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