Re: A single reifier can reify more than one triple term

In my understanding an reifier is a specialization of an identifier (it’s probably safe to say that refier is a subclass of identifier). It is an identifier used in the subject position of an rdf:refies relation. We need a way to refer to these subjects of rdf:reifies relations, and "reifier" might be a good enough name. 

Best,
Thomas


P.S., since the issue came up a few times recently: IMHO the http-range14 problem applies to an identifier used as reifier just as well as to any other identifier on the semantic web: only circumstances might (to be fair, mostly will) disambiguate if the identifier is used/intended to refer to the addresssed resource itself (e.g. a webpage, an email address, a triple term) or to what that resource denotes (its meaning).


> On 25. Mar 2024, at 17:03, Lassila, Ora <ora@amazon.com> wrote:
> 
> Well, it *looks* like an identifier, and it is *used* like an identifier, so now we are back to my general worry: how to explain. I am not happy with saying that there is something that is just like an identifier but is not an identifier. RDF is already confusing enough for many people.
>  If I say
>                  :c :p1 “some value”
>  and then
>                  << :b | :s :p :o >> :p2 “some other value”
>  I have effectively said
>                  :b :p2 “some other value”
>  and will be hard pressed to explain that :c is an identifier (of a resource) but :b is not. I think this problem becomes even clearer (and the example more confusing) if I write it in a way where the IRIs look like typical IRIs:
>                  <http://example.com/this/that#xyz> :p1 “some value” .
>                 <http://example.com/this/that#zxy> :p2 “some other value” .
>  I am not happy.
>  Ora
>   From: Franconi Enrico <franconi@inf.unibz.it>
> Date: Monday, March 25, 2024 at 8:06 AM
> To: "Lassila, Ora" <ora@amazon.com>
> Cc: RDF-star Working Group <public-rdf-star-wg@w3.org>
> Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] A single reifier can reify more than one triple term
>  CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you can confirm the sender and know the content is safe.
>  Lassila, Ora <ora@amazon.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Aside from this, I also worry about having to explain an identifier reifying a set of triples vs. an identifier identifying a set of triples (a named graph). I promise that distinction will be lost on many people.
> 
> First of all, let’s not call it identifier; reifier is, so far, a better and LESS CONFUSING name.
> A reifier is a resource the is unique only in the case the triple term it reifies uniquely identifies it. Whenever the triple term does not uniquely identify a reifier (like in the liz and Richard marriage) then you allow multiple reifiers for the same triple term. 
> And for any such triple terms not uniquely identifying a reifier, NECESSARILY do exist other triple terms that form another incomplete way to identify a reifier. The union of all those triple terms would completely identify uniquely a reifier, but we can not express this in RDF, which can only express binary predicates.
>  —e.

Received on Monday, 25 March 2024 18:40:41 UTC