[Attempto] Statement id in article

[David Whitten]

I have expressed my ideas below


On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 7:57 AM, Tobias Kuhn <kuhntobias at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is an important point. It is more fundamental than it seems at first
> sight. In order to find a consistent way how to identify sentences, we need
> to have a clear idea of what a sentence is. Some questions that have to be
> answered:
>
> - When a sentence is changed, does the changed sentence have the same
> identity as the original one?
>

I don't think the statement "a sentence is changed" is unambiguous.
It depends on the type of change.

If a sentence in a particular paragraph is replaced in the paragraph with a
new sentence, the n-th sentence of that paragraph has changed. The sentence
which once was the n-th sentence is still a sentence, and the sentence
which now is the n-th sentence is still a sentence.

If the identity of the sentence is solely dependent upon the order of the
words and the actual words which are expressed, then the identity of the
sentence has not changed.

If the identity of the sentence is only partially dependent upon the order
of the words and the actual words which are expressed, then the identity of
the sentence has changed, because it is no longer the n-th sentence of a
particular paragraph.

If we liken a paragraph of text to a sequence of mathematical equations,
the system of the equations can be changed (i.e. the numbers when placed as
the values of the variables and which makes the system of equations true)
if one of the equations in the sequence is replaced by another equation
that does NOT have the "same" relationship between the variables and values
in the equation.

This analogy is discussing the identity of the paragraph as much as the
identity of the sentence.
The sentences in a a paragraph have a relationship to each other.

Similarly, the words in a sentence have a relationship to each other.
Since the associated values of the words are dependent upon the location in
the paragraph where the sentence is found, if the sentence is no longer the
n-th sentence in the paragraph, then the values of those words cannot be
said to be the same.  Another aspect is that the values of other words in
the paragraph may no longer have the same associated values because the
sentence is no longer the n-th sentence of the paragraph.

There are sentences which have different expressions, much as there are
mathematical equations which have different expressions, but which
establish the same associations between words.  These sentences may have an
identical associations even whilst consisting of different words and a
different identity.  Perhaps we could say they have identical "meaning" or
"impact", as they establish the same relationship between the words which
they consistent of, both within the sentence and the paragraph.
We might also call these sentences idempotent if each can be the n-th
sentence of a paragraph with no change to the association of values with
words.  Although I think an idempotent sentence might alternately be a
sentence that is not dependent upon its location in a paragraph.


> - When a sentence is moved (within or across articles), does the moved
> sentence have the same identity as the original one?
>

In my opinion, the moved sentence has the same identity, but the values of
the words in the sentence and the associated values of other words in the
paragraph may no longer be the same.


> - Are sentences with the same text identical?


Yes.  The values associated with corresponding words in two sentences may
not be identical.  The position in the paragraph affects the
"meaning"/"impact" of the sentence.


> ... if they are on the same article?


I assume you define an "article" as a sequence of paragraphs. This brings
in the identity of the article into consideration.  And also might suggest
that an idempotent paragraph is one which can appear at any position in the
article, but has the same "meaning"/"impact".


> ... if they are on different articles?
>

The sentence has the same identity.  The impact of the sentence is
different.


> - When a sentence is copied (not yet implemented) is the new sentence
> identical to the existing sentence or do we get two sentence instances?
>
>
Copying a sentence does not change its identity.  If a copy of a sentence
is placed in a position in a paragraph (and by extension placed in position
in an article) then the impact of the sentence in its new position might be
different from a sentence with the same identity placed elsewhere.

David Whitten
PS I don't know if this mail message will be successfully sent to the
mailing list: attempto at lists.ifi.uzh.ch

PPS: Tobias, did we meet each other in early summer 2003 in Zurich at the
Uni ?  I came by and met several of the Attempto folks then.


I don't have answers to these questions at this point, but it's something
> that requires careful consideration.
>
>
> Tobias
>
>
>
>
> On 09.12.2011 13:21, Changyuan Yu wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>   As I understand, now I can only refer to a statement in an article
>> with its position. The position of a statement will change over time,
>> so it can not specify an statement in RESTful service (currently I
>> just use position). I think we should assign an unique id to each
>> statement in an article.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Changyuan
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