Re: RDF-ISSUE-25 (Deprecate Reification): Should we deprecate (RDF 2004) reification? [Cleanup tasks]

As an aside, I would love to use a different example that this superman. I have never watched these superman movies, so all this symbols are just abstract entities to me, which does not help understanding the issues...

I.

----
Ivan Herman
Tel:+31 641044153
http://www.ivan-herman.net



On 8 Apr 2011, at 02:43, Eric Prud'hommeaux <eric@w3.org> wrote:

> * Sandro Hawke <sandro@w3.org> [2011-04-07 18:23-0400]
>> On Thu, 2011-04-07 at 18:18 -0400, David Wood wrote:
>>> On Apr 7, 2011, at 18:07, RDF Working Group Issue Tracker <sysbot+tracker@w3.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> RDF-ISSUE-25 (Deprecate Reification): Should we deprecate (RDF 2004) reification? [Cleanup tasks]
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.w3.org/2011/rdf-wg/track/issues/25
>>>> 
>>>> Raised by: Sandro Hawke
>>>> On product: Cleanup tasks
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> The RDF 1999 and 2004 Recommendations include vocabulary and syntax
>>>> (in RDF/XML) for RDF "reification".  The vocabulary is rdf:Statement,
>>>> rdf:subject, rdf:predicate, and rdf:object; the syntax is rdf:ID used
>>>> on a property element.
>>>> 
>>>> Although this feature is sometimes used in practice, some experts
>>>> advise data providers to avoid it.  It has no syntactic support in
>>>> RDFa or Turtle.  Should the WG align with this advice and say this
>>>> feature is only to be use for backward compatibility?  (That is,
>>>> RDF/XML parsers must continue to support the syntax, and libraries
>>>> should allow applications to use the features to interoperate with
>>>> legacy RDF systems.)
>>>> 
>>>> Note that many or all of the use cases of reification are also uses
>>>> cases for [GRAPHS].  The decision about the fate of reificiation is
>>>> connected with what happens with [GRAPHS].
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Might reification undergo a renaissance when provenance comes back into fashion?  Couldn't we consider reification a degenerate case of a named graph?
>>> 
>>> We might want to go slowly on this one...
>> 
>> I think it's one of the candidate solutions for the GRAPHS use cases.
>> My guess is it's unlikely to survive, but who knows.  :-)
>> 
>> Maybe I should move it from [Cleanup tasks] to [GRAPHS] ?
> 
> People objected to reification for inference and syntax reasons.
> 
> INFERENCE
> The inference issues boil down to the fact that rules applicable to a
> flat graph must be transformed when applied to a reified graph. The
> principle exemplar being owl:sameAs:
>  <LoisLane> <says> [ rdf:s <Superman> ; rdf:p <can> ; rdf:o <fly> ] .
>  <Superman> owl:sameAs <ClarkKent> .
> Applying the sameAs to the reified graph tells you that Lois Lane says
> that Clark Kent can fly, just as it would if you applied it to all
> symbols in
>  <SYSTEM> { <LoisLane> <uttered> <G1> . }
>  <G1> { <Superman> <can> <fly> . }
> 
> If we want use graphs for quoting, we have to be judicious about the
> application of sameAs. Perhaps we want our <SYSTEM> to infer that if
>  <Superman> <canBeatUp> <LexLuther> .
> then
>  <ClarkKen> <canBeatUp> <LexLuther> .
> Of course, we can be equally judicious about the application of sameAs
> in the reified world, using a rule like:
>  { ?X owl:sameAs ?Y .
>    <SYSTEM> <holds> [ rdf:s ?X ; rdf:p ?p ; rdf:o ?o ] . }
>  => 
>  { <SYSTEM> <holds> [ rdf:s ?Y ; rdf:p ?p ; rdf:o ?o ] . }
> 
> In short, I'm not convinced that named graphs offers any more quoting
> ability than reification. We just can't mix reified and non-reified
> statements. (More precisely, we need to know which statements are
> reified, much as we need to know if an statement is inside {}s.)
> 
> 
> SYNTAX
> We can define a predicate <uttered> to encode quoting in named graphs:
>  uttered: asserts that the subject asserted all of the statements
>           in the graph named in the object.
>  <SYSTEM> { <LoisLane> <uttered> <G1> .
>             <Superman> <canBeatUp> <LexLuther> .}
>  <G1> { <Superman> <can> <fly> . }
> or reification:
>  uttered: asserts that the subject asserted the dereification of the
>           objects of the <holds> arc from the object. [wordsmithing opportunity]
>  <SYSTEM> <holds> [ rdf:s <LoisLane> ; rdf:p <uttered> ; rdf:o <G1> ] ,
>                   [ rdf:s <Superman> ; rdf:p <canBeatUp> ; rdf:o <LexLuther> ] .
>  <G1> <holds> [ rdf:s <Superman> ; rdf:p <can> ; rdf:o <fly> ] .
> or more simply in N3:
>  uttered: asserts that the subject asserted the statements in the object.
>  <SYSTEM> <holds> { <LoisLane> <uttered> { <Superman> <can> <fly> . } .
>                     <Superman> <canBeatUp> <LexLuther> . } .
> 
> What happens when Lois says that Lex says that Superman can fly?
> name graphs:
>  <SYSTEM> { <LoisLane> <uttered> <G1> .
>             <Superman> <canBeatUp> <LexLuther> . }
>  <G1> { <LexLuther> <uttered> <G2> . }
>  <G2> { <Superman> <can> <fly> . }
> reification:
>  <SYSTEM> <holds> [ rdf:s <LoisLane> ; rdf:p <uttered> ; rdf:o <G1> ] ,
>                   [ rdf:s <Superman> ; rdf:p <canBeatUp> ; rdf:o <LexLuther> ] .
>  <G1> <holds> [ rdf:s <LexLuther> ; rdf:p <uttered> ; rdf:o <G2> ] .
>  <G2> <holds> [ rdf:s <Superman> ; rdf:p <can> ; rdf:o <fly> ] .
> n3:
>  <SYSTEM> <holds> {
>    <LoisLane> <uttered> {
>      <LexLuther> <uttered>  {
>        <Superman> <can> <fly> . } . } .
>    <Superman> <canBeatUp> <LexLuther> . }
> 
> SPARQL syntax might lead us to believe that queries can use nesting to
> match she-said-he-said quotes, but I don't think there's any distinction
> between (here arbitrarily promoting <SYSTEM> to the default graph):
>  ASK {
>    ?she <uttered> ?g1
>    GRAPH ?g1 {
>      ?he <uttered> ?g2
>      GRAPH ?g2 {
>        <Superman> <can> <fly>
>      }
>    }
>  }
> and
>  ASK {
>    ?she <uttered> ?g1
>    GRAPH ?g1 {
>      ?he <uttered> ?g2
>    }
>    GRAPH ?g2 {
>      <Superman> <can> <fly>
>    }
>  }
> 
> The real challenge for named graphs comes when we don't have names for
> our speach acts. Reification causes no problem:
>  <SYSTEM> <holds> [ rdf:s <LoisLane> ; rdf:p <uttered> ; rdf:o _:g1 ] .
>  _:g1 <holds> [ rdf:s <LexLuther> ; rdf:p <uttered> ; rdf:o _:g2 ] .
> but names graphs requires bnode scope to escape the graph boundries:
>  <SYSTEM> { <LoisLane> <uttered> _:g1 . }
>  _:g1 { <LexLuther> <uttered> _:g2 . }
> Critics of bnodes will no doubt say "invent names for your speach acts",
> but "honor the names you invented" is a pretty heavy burden compared to
> having to write out reification.
> 
> -- 
> -ericP
>

Received on Friday, 8 April 2011 02:47:27 UTC