Re: Interpretation of RDF reification

From: Lars Marius Garshol <larsga@ontopia.net>
Subject: Interpretation of RDF reification
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:37:36 +0100

> I've been trying to read the answer to this answer out of the RDF  
> specs, and I think I've got it, but would like to make 100% certain.
> 
> If I create an RDF node that reifies the statement
> 
>    (winston, married-to, clementine)
> 
> what does that node represent? Specifically, does it represent the  
> *statement* that these two are married, or does it represent the  
> *marriage* relationship between them? That is, if the reifying RDF  
> node is x, which of the following two statements wouldn't make sense?
> 
>    (x, start-date, 1908-09-02)
>    (x, according-to, wikipedia)
> 
> I suspect the answer is that RDF nodes reifying statements really do  
> represent the statements. If that's the case, what is the usual way  
> of meeting the other use case in RDF?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any answers!
> 
> --
> Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian               http://www.ontopia.net
> +47 98 21 55 50                             http://www.garshol.priv.no

I'm afraid that the answer to your question is a very strong, "NEITHER".

*An* RDF node (there can be more than one!) that reifies the statement

	ex:winston ex:married-to ex:clementine

i.e., _:r in

	_:r rdf:type rdf:Statement .
	_:r rdf:subject ex:winston .
	_:r rdf:predicate ex:married-to .
	_:r rdf:object ex:clementine .

represents nothing more than an element of the domain of discourse that is
related to four other elements of the domain of discourse in the obvious
way.  

See  http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/#Reif for more information on RDF
reification.


Peter F. Patel-Schneider
Bell Labs Research

Received on Wednesday, 22 March 2006 20:55:45 UTC