Further Exploration in Primitives of Meaning

摘要

Semantic mismatch between systems is due, in part, to the grouping together of terms who have representations of meaning in different levels of granularity (from different perspectives), and which are composed together into distinct groupings by their own systems of origin. It has been proposed that by referencing these representations when decomposed into elemental concepts (referred to here as primitives of meaning) can assist in interoperability. Insofar as systems describing similar referents are operating within a similar community, the underlying concepts are near-universal (within that community) enough to accommodate this. By decomposing a system's groups of composed terms into primitives of meaning, the building blocks that can be reassembled into the compositions required by another group (of another system, for instance) can be made apparent. While such a de-composition could serve as the basis for an interoperability enabler, having the decomposition available as a common descriptor to highlight areas of semantic misalignment should prove in itself useful. Taking doctrinal statements for US small unit infantry actions as one semantic system, we show how the elemental ideas that are grouped together into commands can be identified and isolated for reconstruction into other groupings. This is the first research step towards relying on primitives of meaning for interoperability.