Re: Issue : unicity of prefLabel per language per concept scheme

Leonard Will wrote:

> There is a rather different case where a single term may have different 
> meanings, depending on context, such as "operations" which has a 
> different meaning if its broader term is "surgical activities" or 
> "military activities". In this case there are three options, which I 
> don't think are covered by SKOS:
> 
> 1. Treat the whole string as a single concept label, which as Bernard 
> says becomes cumbersome (and confusing).
> 
> 2. Do not use the term as a preferred label to identify the concept, but 
> use some other unique notation instead.

This is mostely the best option if SKOS would allow notations and titles 
that are needed for classifications (in contrast to thesauri). Currently 
a preferred label is used for both: unique identification and labeling 
the concept for human consumption - you need a way to seperate this. The 
problem with notations is that there is no defined language for them 
because languages are no concepts in SKOS. I proposed skos:notation, 
maybe there is a better solution, but without a defined rule how to 
treat notations, everyone will use its own solution.

> 3. Add a distinguishing qualifier to the term, e.g. "operations 
> (surgery)" / "operations (military)", or change the term to "surgical 
> operations" or "military operations". This is not an option if the 
> objective is to encode a pre-existing vocabulary that is not within your 
> control.

Greetings,
Jakob

-- 
Jakob Voß <jakob.voss@gbv.de>, skype: nichtich
Verbundzentrale des GBV (VZG) / Common Library Network
Platz der Goettinger Sieben 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
+49 (0)551 39-10242, http://www.gbv.de

Received on Tuesday, 4 December 2007 11:15:31 UTC