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There is one thing which confuses me with the use of multiple broader terms and classification.

Suppose I have the following thesaurus:

> colors
  > green
  > red
  > blue
  > yellow
  > orange
  > favorite colors
    > orange
    > red
    > yellow

where the concepts orange, red and yellow have two broader concepts: favorite colors and colors.

What is the effect then if I give a document the concept 'orange'? Can I make the difference between 'favorite color' and just 'color'?

m.s.
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michielv
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1 Answers1

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SKOS does support polyhierarchies as you have shown here. This means that a concept can have multiple "contexts", where the context is defined by its broader concepts. In your case, <orange> has two contexts: <favorite colors><colors> and <colors>. There isn't a way to say is one or the other - it is both. That's what polyhierarchies are all about.

But I would expect that the kinds of questions one would ask of this hierarchy are along the lines of "What are the colors?" "What are 'favorite colors'?", and that is what determines which context is being used in.

scotthenninger
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