FW: Symbols and depictions

Hi Mark,

> It's much clearer, but let me see if I understand completely. 
> Is it the 
> case that foaf:depictions are used only if there is a physical 
> resemblance between concept and image? 

Basically yes, but I would say something like: '... only if the image is a depiction of the meaning of the concept'.

> So an image with a photo or 
> sketch etc. of the "Eiffel tower" can be used to depict the concept 
> "Eiffel tower", but not e.g. concepts "Paris" and "France".

Yes, that would be semantically proper usage (but I'll bet some people do it anyway).
 
> However, the 
> image could be used as symbolic labels for concepts "Paris" 
> and "France".

Technically the image could be used as a symbolic label for anything.

> 
> But if this physical criterium holds, there is no way to 
> depict "love"; 
> only symbols would be possible?

That's a deeper philosophical question which I won't try to answer ... we could probably have a long and interesting discussion about whether e.g. Auguste Rodin's sculpture 'The Kiss' is a depiction of love :) 

> 
> foaf:depiction is not broader in meaning than 
> skos:prefSymbol/skos:altSymbol because something that is a 
> symbol of a 
> concept (e.g. a rooster as symbol for France) is not necessarily a 
> depiction of that concept. (An image of a map with the French 
> boarders 
> highlighted would then be a valid depiction of concept "France".)

Yes.

> 
> Maybe the explanations of symbols and depictions could be 
> placed below 
> each other in the Guide so their differences can be illustrated 
> conveniently.

I'll draft something to do that.

> 
> BTW was there a specific use case to include depictions/symbolic 
> labelling in SKOS (e.g. I think I heard of a project to link 
> images to 
> WordNet)?

There are some conceptual schemes that have depictions - especially concept schemes which are used as teaching aids e.g. in geography.  Chaals has been working with some symbolic concept schemes, such as Bliss (see e.g. [1]) specifically to support web accessibility use cases.  I don't know of any use cases yet where concepts have both a depiction and a symbolic label.

Cheers,

Al.

[1] http://www.symbols.net/blissymbolics/dictionary/

Received on Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:36:55 UTC