RE: Comment: ISSUE-70

Thank you, Sean.
   I'm still, however, confused.  It seems to me that these examples can
be reasonably considered as sets and subsets.

The set of fairy tales contains the set of Cinderella stories as well as
the set of Rumpelstiltskin stories.  The set of Cinderella stories is a
subset of the set of fairy tales.

Likewise, regiments are a subset of battalions, which are in turn a
subset of military divisions and so on.

Is this logic incorrect? How?

Thank you!

Jody DeRidder
Digital Library Center
University of Tennessee Libraries
Knoxville, Tennessee


-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Bechhofer [mailto:sean.bechhofer@manchester.ac.uk] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 12:09 PM
To: Deridder, Jody L
Cc: public-swd-wg@w3.org
Subject: Re: Comment: ISSUE-70


On 12 Feb 2008, at 16:45, Deridder, Jody L wrote:

>
>
> Hi Sean!
>     You're correct:  if each is a subset of the other, they are
> identical.
>
>   So, if skos:broader is supposed to represent something more general
> than a set or subset, could you please give examples to support what
> that could be, to which this subset reasoning would not apply?


The SKOS Reference [1] Section 7.1 says:

[[
The Simple Knowledge Organization System distinguishes between two  
basic categories of semantic relation: hierarchical and associative.  
A hierarchical link between two conceptual resources indicates that  
one is in some way more general ("broader") than the other ("narrower").
]]

skos:broader might be used to represent part-whole or instance  
relationships, which aren't strictly sub/super set, e.g. from [2]:

fairy tales
   Cinderella
   Rumpelstiltskin

nervous system
   central nervous system
     brain

armies
   divisions (military)
     battalions
       regiments

Cheers,

	Sean

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-reference-20080125/
[2] http://www.slis.kent.edu/~mzeng/Z3919/43hierarchy.htm

--
Sean Bechhofer
School of Computer Science
University of Manchester
sean.bechhofer@manchester.ac.uk
http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/people/bechhofer

Received on Tuesday, 12 February 2008 18:02:18 UTC