Structures of Information

Abstract

Different application areas use different conceptual means for representation of information about the domains they deal with. It can be observed that a great variety of informational structures and data employ the notions of “object” and “property” as the most elementary pieces of information. Often the notion of property is split into two components: an attribute and its value. These notions are fundamental, for example in the theory of databases. Similarly, it is well established in cognitive science and logic that an analysis of concepts is based on these notions. A concept is determined by its extension (or denotation) and intension (or connotation) . The extension of a concept consists of the obj ects that are instances of this concept and the intension of a concept consists of the properties that are characteristic for the objects to which this concept applies. In this chapter we present several structures of information that employ “object” and “property” as their basic notions.