[sc34wg3] SAM-issue psi-generics (was: SAM-issue term-scope-def)

[Marc de Graauw]

* Lars Marius Garshol
| I've given this issue the id 'xtm-prop-subject-indicator'.
|
| * Marc de Graauw
| | We can speak about everything in the world, except about topics! If
| | however topic characteristic assigments are assertions about the
| | topic, it is of course quite possible to say things about the topic
| | (in fact, you always do).
|
| Which again would mean that topic maps are meaningless, because you
| always talk about topics, and never anything else. :)
|

I have not changed my opinion on that subject. Even when we follow Bernard's
steps a topic can only say "I am a topic", not "I contain 6 assertions", so one
cannot say everything one would conceivably want to say about a topic.

Nevertheless, I think you should make the question 'Are topic map characteristic
assignments assertions about topics or about subjects' a separate issue and put
it on the table in Montreal (or Baltimore). A lot about it has been said by very
few people, so I think it would be good to have some explicit consensus on it.
Up to now it has been 'hidden' in the issue psi-generics, and if that is
resolved on other grounds (the PSI 'topic' is of no use), the subject-or-topic
issue disappears.

Marc