Scope
One of the senses of the word "scope" is, according to WordNet 2.1. "an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control". Scope is related to "context".
The scope of a term may thus describe the area in which the term may be applied.
The concept is important in Topic Maps in which it is possible to specify scopes for concepts. Pepper (2002) provides the following example: "a name (e.g., "St. Petersburg") may be applicable in some contexts (pre-1914 and post-1991), but not in others".
Pepper (2002) also mentions that "one useful and potentially very powerful application of scope is to permit the capture of different "Weltanschauungen", or world views, of the subject. This is extremely important when merging topic maps, since it permits knowledge of which assertions came from which source to be retained: The individual names, occurrences, and associations can be scoped in such a way as to indicate where they originated."
Literature:
Pepper, S. (2002). Towards a General Theory of Scope. http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/scope.htm
See also: Merging of texts (Lifeboat for KO); Scope note (Lifeboat for KO)
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 19-06-2006