Term Identifier

A Term Identifier is a text that is used for identifying a semantic unit within a designated terminology. This means that it can be used for selecting an MRG entry that exists in the MRG associated with that terminology. It does NOT mean that any such text will actually identify such an MRG entry. Term identifiers can be ambiguous (refer to multiple MRG entries). It is also possible that a term identifier does not identify any such MRG entry.

Similarly, term identifiers can be used for identifying the curated text that describes the semantic unit within a designated terminology. Here, too, term identifiers exist that are ambiguous, or do not refer to any curated text.

Syntax

The syntax for the most general form of a term identifier is:

termType : term @ scopetag : vsntag

where

Name	Req'd	Description
term	Y	is a text that is used to refer to a semantic unit within the designated terminology. It either appears in the (required) term-field of curated texts and MRG entries, or it is one of the form phrases by which the semantic unit is referred to.
termType	n	specifies the kind of semantic unit that is to be identified. Typical values are concept, relation, pattern (or mental-model), or use-case. If not specified, the : (in front of the term) MUST NOT be present, and its value defaults to that of the defaulttype-field in the scope section of the SAF.
scopetag	n	is the scopetag that identifies the scope of the terminology. If scopetag is omitted, the scope defaults to the current scope.
vsntag	n	is the versiontag that identifies the version of the terminology to be used. If not specified, the : preceding the vsntag MUST NOT be present, and its value defaults to the default version of the terminology, as specified in the defaultvsn field in the scope-section of the SAF of the scope in which the terminology is maintained.

Examples

Assumptions regarding the default values for optional parts

• tev2 is a scopetag that identifies the scope in which the TEv2 terminology is being curated.
• the default kind of semantic unit documented within tev2 is concept.
• terms is a vsntag that identifies the terminology within tev2 that consists of all terms that are defined within tev2.
• terms is the vsntag for the default terminology of tev2.
• myscope is a scopetag that identifies the current scope.
• latest is the vsntag for the default terminology of myscope.
• the default kind of semantic unit documented within myscope is use-case.

Specified term-identifier	With filled-in defaults:	What the term-identifier refers to
party	`use-case:party@myscope:latest	the use-case party, as defined in the default terminology of the current scope (i.e., myscope).
party@tev2	`concept:party@tev2:terms	the concept party, as defined in the default terminology of the scope tev2.
pattern:pic@tev2:latest	pattern:pic@tev2:latest	the pattern (mental model) pic, as defined in the latest version of the tev2 terminology.
atjar@:terms	atjar@:terms	the use-case atjar, as defined in the terminology with versiontag terms within myscope.

Semantics

Term identifiers represent semantic units. Since MRG entries document semantic units, we can also say that term identifiers refer to the MRG entry that documents their semantic units.

This section describes how this dereferencing process works, i.e., how the MRG entry that corresponds to a term identifier can be found (if it exists).

1. First, the term identifier is split at the @-sign, where the part behind the @-sign is a terminology identifier that identifies the terminology and hence the MRG that contains all MRG entries thereof. This set of MRG entries is what we start out with.

2. Then, the part in front of the @-sign is processed, as follows:

   1. we only keep MRG entries whose term field equals the value specified by term;³
   2. if termType: is specified, we only keep MRG entries whose termType field equals the value specified by termType;
   3. If the set of MRG entries that are kept includes more than one element, we only keep the MRG entries whose termType field contains the value specified by the defaulttype field as specifiedin the MRG.

3. Now we're done with selecting. In case the number of elements in the set of MRG entries is

   • 0: the term identifier cannot be resolved; there is no matching semantic unit.
   • 1: one semantic unit is identified; it is described by the selected MRG entry;
   • 2: the term identifier is ambiguous, i.e., or more than one semantic units are a match. This can occur when there are 2 or more MRG entries that both have the same term-field, and each of them has a termType field that is not the default termType for its that scope, and the term identifier did not contain a specification for the termType

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1. in some cases, this step works a bit different: first the term field is regularized; then all MRG entries are kept that have this result as one of the elements in its formPhrases field.↩