[topicmapmail] scoping names and variant names

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Richard Gregory
| 
| Thanks for the answer. I understand that a variant, is a variant of
| a base name, and has a relationship to the base name (as Lars points
| out). But, when does a name cease to be a variant, and become a new
| name with a different scope? Is this just open to interpretation?

It is, yes. The semantics provided by XTM are really no stronger than
what we've told you.
 
| Perhaps my problem here is because I'm struggling to see the
| difference between the <scope>, and the <parameter> within a
| <variant>, as both seem (to me) to "scope" the name, or "scope" its
| use.  

They do. There is no difference, as TMDM shows[1].

| For example, I have Jack Park's book, and I'm looking at the
| examples in Sam Hunting's chapter 6, where he uses <scope> to
| provide different baseNames for "tomato" in different languages for
| different users (could these also be viewed as variants, as they do
| have a relationship?), 

I don't have the book, so I can't say for certain, but normally I
wouldn't do that. There is a relationship, but I think you care more
about the difference (language) than the commonality (etymology), and
so I would separate them.

| but uses <variant> to provide a short version of the name ("TMT")
| for display on mobile phones, and I'm struggling to see the
| difference.

The short version is just a different form of the name in whatever
language, and so that is naturally a variant (you care more about
commonality than difference).
 
| Here is an example from a topic map I'm working on. I have a topic
| which is about the organism yeast, which has the latin name
| saccharomyces-cerevisiae as a basename. I also have the official
| english (scientific) name "baker's yeast" as a base name with a
| scope "english". However, I also want to include the common name,
| "yeast", which at present I have as a variant of "baker's yeast" (as
| below). Is this correct, or should this be a new base name with the
| scope "common name"?
| 
| <topic id="t-saccharomyces-cerevisiae">
|         <instanceOf>
|             <topicRef xlink:href="#tt-species"/>
|         </instanceOf>
|         <baseName>
|             <baseNameString>Saccharomyces Cerevisiae</baseNameString>
|         </baseName>
|         <baseName>
|             <scope>
|                 <topicRef xlink:href="#st-EN"/>
|             </scope>
|             <baseNameString>Baker's Yeast</baseNameString>
|             <variant>
|                 <parameters>
|                     <topicRef  xlink:href="#t-common-name"/>
|                 </parameters>
|                 <variantName>
|                     <resourceData>Yeast</resourceData>
|                 </variantName>
|             </variant>
|         </baseName>	
|     </topic>  

This looks like the right solution to me. "Yeast" is the common form
of the name "Baker's yeast", and the Latin name really has nothing to
do with either, being only related to the other two by virtue of being
another name for the same subject.

[1] <URL: http://www.isotopicmaps.org/sam/sam-model/ >

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
GSM: +47 98 21 55 50                  <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >