IAO_0000219 - denotes¶
Label
denotes
Sub property of
Definition
A primitive, instance-level, relation obtaining between an information content entity and some portion of reality. Denotation is what happens when someone creates an information content entity E in order to specifically refer to something. The only relation between E and the thing is that E can be used to ‘pick out’ the thing. This relation connects those two together. Freedictionary.com sense 3: To signify directly; refer to specifically
Definition source
Conversations with Barry Smith, Werner Ceusters, Bjoern Peters, Michel Dumontier, Melanie Courtot, James Malone, Bill Hogan
Example
A person’s name denotes the person. A variable name in a computer program denotes some piece of memory. Lexically equivalent strings can denote different things, for instance “Alan” can denote different people. In each case of use, there is a case of the denotation relation obtaining, between “Alan” and the person that is being named.
Editor’s note
2009-11-10 Alan Ruttenberg. Old definition said the following to emphasize the generic nature of this relation. We no longer have ‘specifically denotes’, which would have been primitive, so make this relation primitive. g denotes r =def r is a portion of reality there is some c that is a concretization of g every c that is a concretization of g specifically denotes r
Imported from
Term editor
person:Alan Ruttenberg