Predication
Originally posted as part of the CMPE58H course by Susan Üsküdarlı in the fall semester of 2022 at https://furkanakkurt5204.gitlab.io/personal/ontology/2022/11/24/predication.
As we know, a semantic triple is made up of a subject, a predicate and an object. From my language learning studies, I know that some grammars divide sentences into two: subject and predicate. This is why I wanted to search for the division of the predicate into two: relation (i.e. predicate) and object.
Firstly, it seems that the predicate and subject division occurred with the ancient philosophers, which doesn’t mean it had not been thought of earlier. Since writing is a “recent” phenomenon, written history is too small. Back to philosophers, Aristotle thought that the division between subject and predicate is essential. As I understand, Plato articulated that the relation (predicate) gives the subject its name: beauty → beautiful .
In an ontology, the relation (predicate) needs to be separated from the object for it to be generalizable. In linguistics, it’s no worry to call the entire verbal phrase “eat an apple” a predicate; but, in an ontology, this wouldn’t help us at all.
I learned, on the way, that the concept Semantic triple’s entry on Wikipedia in French is a whole lot longer than the one in English. 😮 :learning French on Duolingo: