The following list contains all terms which are relevant in the context of Topic Maps. The list include s all terms of the current draft version of TMDM, too.
For all listed terms a German term and a translated definition is available in the Deutsche Topic Map-Terminologie.
| Element | Defintion |
|---|---|
| association | is a representation of a relationship between one or more subjects |
| association role player | is a a topic participating in an association |
| association role | is the representation of the involvement of a subject in a relationship represented by an association |
| association role type | a topic defining the nature of the participation of an association role player in an association |
| association type | a topic representing a subject which describes the nature of the relationship represented by the association |
| base name | a name or label for a subject, expressed as a string |
| information item | abstract representations of topic map constructs |
| information resource | a resource that can be represented as a sequence of bytes, and thus could potentially be retrieved over a network |
| instance | Any subject that belongs to a particular type |
| item identifier | locator assigned to an information item in order to allow it to be referred to |
| locator | a string conforming to some locator notation that references one or more information resources |
| locator notation | a definition of the formal syntax and interpretation of a class of locators |
| merging | a process applied to topic maps in order to reduce the number of redundant topic map constructs |
| occurrence | a representation of relationship between a subject and an information resource |
| occurrence type | a topic attached to an occurrence to describe the nature of the relationship between the subject and the information resource linked by that occurrence |
| published subject | any subject for which there exists at least one published subject indicator |
| published subject identifier | the subject identifier of a published subject indicator |
| published subject indicator | a subject indicator that is published and maintained at an advertised location for the purposes of supporting topic map interchange and mergeability |
| reification | making a topic represent the subject of another topic map construct |
| scope | the context within which a topic characteristic assignment is valid |
| subject | anything whatsoever, regardless of whether it exists or has any other specific characteristics, about which anything whatsoever may be asserted by any means whatsoever. In particular, it is anything on which the creator of a topic map chooses to discourse. |
| subject identifier | a locator that refers to a subject indicator |
| subject indicator | an information resource that is referred to from a topic map in an attempt to unambiguously identify the subject of a topic to a human being. Any information resource can become a subject indicator by being referred to as such from within some topic map, whether or not it was intended by its publisher to be a subject indicator. |
| subject locator | a locator that refers to the information resource that is the subject of a topic. The topic thus represents that particular information resource; i.e. the information resource is the subject of the topic. |
| topic | a symbol used within a topic map to represent some subject, about which the creator of the topic map wishes to make statements |
| topic characteristic | |
| topic characteristic | a topic name, occurrence, or association role belonging to some topic |
| topic characteristic assignment | a statement that a certain topic characteristic belongs to a certain topic |
| topic item | nothing found yet |
| topic map | a set of topics and associations |
| Topic Maps | a technology for encoding knowledge and connecting this encoded knowledge to relevant information resources |
| topic map construct | is a component of a topic map; that is, a topic map, a topic, a topic name, a variant name, an occurrence, an association, or an association role. |
| topic name | is a name for a topic, consisting of the base form, known as the base name, and variants of that base form, known as variant names |
| type | is an abstraction that captures characteristics common to a set of subjects |
| unconstrained scope | is the scope used to indicate that a topic characteristic assignment is considered to have unlimited validity |
| variant name | is an alternative form of a topic name that may be more suitable in certain contexts than the base name of the topic map |