Meaning of "broaderTransitive"

It seems to me that confusion about "broaderTransitive" and 
"narrowerTransitive", especially their being wider in meaning than 
"broader" and "narrower", arises from their being given inappropriate 
names.

Calling a relationship "broaderTransitive" appears to say something 
which restricts the nature of the relationship, whereas it seems to be 
being used in SKOS just to say something about the concepts which can be 
related by it.

Am I right in thinking that on the analogy of direct relationships being 
expressed as "parent / child", the idea that "broaderTransitive / 
narrowerTransitive" tries to express is "ancestor / descendant" ?

If this is the case, then it is clear that "broaderParent" is a specific 
case of "broaderAncestor", and these names would be less confusing. If 
you don't like them, how about "broaderIndirect" for "broaderAncestor", 
leaving "broader" on its own to express "broaderParent", for which it 
has generally been used in thesauri?

I still find "A broader B" to be ambiguous, and would like to see it 
expressed as "hasBroaderConcept" to avoid confusion with 
"isBroaderConceptOf". These would appear quite neatly as 
"hasBroaderParent" and "hasBroaderAncestor" or even "hasParent" and 
"hasAncestor".

Similarly for narrower . . .

Leonard Will

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Received on Sunday, 8 June 2008 11:04:56 UTC