RE: A triple is not unique.

At 03:16 PM 11/20/00 +0000, McBride, Brian wrote:
>A good distinction.  Again from M&S 4.1:
>
>   A new resource with the above four properties represents
>   the original statement ...
>
>The case to be met is that a statement is a triple (s,p,o) which
>is uniquely defined by its three components.  The exert I just
>quoted from M&S 4.1 says that a reified statement models a
>statement.  Not the stating of a statement.  Current M&S
>implies therefore that a reified statement is uniquely determined
>by its subject, predicate and object.

Brian,

I agree with your reading of the spec, but not your final implication.

That "A models B" does not to me imply that there is no other thing A' such 
that "A' models B".

Indeed, interpreting "models" in a very literal English way, a model is a 
separate entity that copies some of the features of the thing it models, 
and hence carries a strong implication that it is not the only thing that 
models its subject.

And back to the RDF:  a possible counter-example to your implication is 
that one may have resources identified as [R1] and [R2] that both model 
some statement.  If R1 and R2 are different URIs then, according to some 
people, they necessarily stand for different resources.  (This final point 
is contentious, and I think it is this that really needs to be resolved by 
whatever means the W3C can bring to bear.)

#g


------------
Graham Klyne
(GK@ACM.ORG)

Received on Monday, 20 November 2000 12:46:10 UTC