Re: Interpretation of Relations

From: Joe Thurbon <usenet_at_thurbon.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:15:39 GMT
Message-ID: <fT0sh.3250$u8.1570@news-server.bigpond.net.au>

Tonkuma wrote:
> Joe Thurbon wrote:

>> indicates that I don't know the colour of Joe's hair. It really means
>>
>> NOT Joes hair is Red
>> NOT Joes hair is Blond
>>
>> Is this right? If so, it leads me to a question about modelling missing
>> information. (And a lot of other questions, too). If not, is there a
>> simple thing that I've missed?
>>

> If you really don't know the colour of Joe's hair. Joe's
> hair color may be Red, Blond, Brown, White, Black, etc.
> There are many possibilities including Red or Blond. You can't say
> definitly "NOT Joes hair is Red" and/or "NOT Joes hair is Blond".
>

Thanks for your reply.

I think my original post was unclear in stating my problem, since this is the second reply which talks about my impoverished domain.

As far as I understand it "Joes hair is Brown" is not even a valid statement in my domain.

Since the Colour domain contains only Red and Blond, and I've not made either assertion {Joe Blonde} nor {Joe, Red}, the CWA means that I've effectively "asserted" the negation of both.

Cheers,
Joe Received on Fri Jan 19 2007 - 04:15:39 CST