[sc34wg3] SAM-issue term-subject-identity

Sam Hunting sc34wg3@isotopicmaps.org
Tue, 16 Jul 2002 14:26:18 -0400 (EDT)


[lars]
> I do think you run into the problem Marc identified, though. Saying
> "topics are merged when they have the same subject identity" sounds
> kinda strange. The word "identity" seems superfluous to me. It may be
> just a poorly chosen example, but it still seems to me that we don't
> need this term.

Well, there are two issues here. One is the abandonment of use of the
phrase "subject identity." The other is its use in this phrase. (I
agree it seems odd. I mean, if they have the same identity, are they
not *already* merged? As Chico Marx says somewhere, "Ha ha! He thinks I
look alike.") I wouldn't use this phrase, because I don't know what it
means to "have" a subject identity. (I would say that two topics are
merged when they share a subject identity point of the same kind (subject
indicating or subject constituting -- taking that as an operational
definition of what it means to "have""a subject identity.")

Sam Hunting
eTopicality, Inc.

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