[rdfweb-dev] languages

[Ian Davis]

On Wednesday, 30 July 2003 at 13:51, Bill Kearney wrote:
> Why the added wrapper of lang:preferred?  Or rather, wouldn't a level of
> preference on using a language be better off asserted within the language?  What
> I'm missing is how to structure your example when someone's proficient in
> several languages, to varying degrees, while also expressing preference (and
> possible order of such).
I was just rewriting the original example as RDF, not really thinking
about the actual properties.

How would I model it?

A person can speak, read, write or understand one or more languages.
Each language can independently be spoken, read, written or understood
with varying proficiencies. A person may rank their preferred
languages for each mode of communication.

Maybe proficiencies aren't absolute but are relative.

Here's one suggestion for implementing this:

<lang:speaks>
  <lang:LanguageProficiency rdf:ID="spokenEnglish">
    <lang:iso639Code>en</lang:iso639Code>
  </lang:LanguageProficiency>
</lang:speaks>

<lang:speaks>
  <lang:LanguageProficiency rdf:ID="spokenFrench">
    <lang:iso639Code>fr</lang:iso639Code>
    <lang:wouldPrefer rdf:resource="#spokenEnglish" />
  </lang:LanguageProficiency>
</lang:speaks>

<lang:speaks>
  <lang:LanguageProficiency rdf:ID="spokenGerman">
    <lang:iso639Code>de</lang:iso639Code>
    <lang:wouldPrefer rdf:resource="#spokenEnglish" />
    <lang:wouldPrefer rdf:resource="#spokenFrench" />
  </lang:LanguageProficiency>
</lang:speaks>

An agent trying to determine the best common language picks one that
both parties understand at random. It checks the wouldPrefer property
to see if there's a better language that they both speak. Continue
until no more wouldPrefer properties.

Just more ingredients for the pot...


- Ian <iand at internetalchemy.org>
"One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done."