[topicmapmail] Associating to an association

[Martin Stitt]

Hello,

While reading a recent series of emails from this list (about using
keywords), I thought about how to categorize these email as resources
against concepts within a topic map.  A couple of examples of
pertinent concepts would be:

  topic maps
  keywords

But, something was missing here.  A summary phrase for the email was
more active than just the two concepts.  For example:

  "representing keywords within topic map applications"

Between these two concepts, there could be a "representing"
association.  If that were done, the email should then be associated
to that association.  I want to tie the resource to the idea that
there is a representation type of activity going on between "topic
maps" and "keywords".  I want to make an association to an
association.

If I make an association with three members, such that "represents"
can be a topic, I could then associate the email to this "represents"
topic.  But, I would be using this "represents" topic in lots of other
cases too.  Having my resources tied to this "represents" topic is too
vague.  (Yes, an alternate way of doing this would be having this
"represents" topic be the association's type topic, but the vagueness
is still a problem)

I want to cast an association to the specific instance of "represents"
that associates two specific topics: "topic maps" and "keywords".  I
want to reify a specific instance a topic-association-topic
relationship.

Is this possible within the topic map model?

Thanks...

Martin Stitt