Re: Meaning of RDF:Statement

The reified triple is not meant in anyway to assert
that the triple is part of any graph. So, for example,
one could state :

believesIn(Fred, shape(Earth, Flat))

without asserting that the earth was flat.

Guha

Dan Brickley wrote:

> Here's a puzzle: is an RDF Statement (ie. a triple in reified form, an
> instance of the class Statement) a representation of some "stating" of a
> subject/predicate/object triple, or a representation of the abstract
> statement that is being asserted?
>
> I believe the model spec is a little unclear on this, but that the answer
> should be that there are two distinct concepts ('assertions events' or
> 'statings' versus 'statements') and that our reified 'RDF Statement'
> objects model the latter. A particular statement, then, could be asserted
> by different people on different dates in different contexts. Each of
> these claims might have PICS-labelesque attributes such as being 'by'
> some agent, 'on' some date. Whereas the statements themselves are
> timeless.
>
> Three questions:
>
> 1. Does this distinction seem clear?
>
> 2. Does my reading of the meaning of 'RDF Statement' seem correct?
>
> 3. If so, can we use algorithms such as those Sergey proposes to assign
> globally unique, identical identifiers to each statement to facilitiate
> data aggregation? (eg. any occurance of [bill clinton]
> --livesIn->[America] could have a canonical statement URI generated,
> like uuid:423423532453443 such that all graphs including reference to this
> statement could usefully be aggregated). Each 'stating' of the claim that
> [bill clinton]--livesIn->[America], by contrast, could have a different
> URI since it would happen of a different date by a different agency.
>
> Am I making any sense?
>
> Dan
>
> --
> danbri@w3.org

Received on Sunday, 12 December 1999 12:17:34 UTC