Draft query: reified statements

The draft does not make clear whether an explicitly written reified
statement (i.e. a resource with the four properties instanceOf,
propName, propObj, and value) is necessarily asserted by RDF.
The example in clause 4.1 suggests that it is not, but examples
are presumably not normative.

If a reified statement is asserted, then statements like

# Ralph Swick says that Ora Lassila is the creator of
# the resource http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila.

(from the example in clause 4.1) cannot even be represented in RDF,
since this statement does not assert that Ora Lassila etc.

In formal terms, can we infer from the presence in the set Triples of:

	{instanceOf, [x], RDF:Property}
	{propName, [x], p}
	{propObj, [x], r}
	{value, [x], v}

that {p, r, v} is also present in Triples?  If not, this should be
clarified.  If so, how are non-factive predicates like "X believes
that p", "X doubts that p", and so on to be handled?  (There is
no problem with "X has proved that p" or "X knows that p".)

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan@ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)

Received on Thursday, 10 September 1998 16:26:03 UTC