Sam Hunting wrote,
> (Wittgenstein would, I think, call your mapping a kind of
> "ostensive definition" -- a theory of language that he made
> it his later life's work, if not to refute, at least to
> enrich.)
Quite a lot of recent philosophical work on naming and
reference would seem to be relevant to this thread.
I think readers of this list will find,
Saul Kripke, _Naming_and_Necessity_, Blackwell, 1979
Hilary Putnam, _Reason_truth_and_History_, Cambridge UP
a bit more accessible than Wittgenstein.
That said ... if this is a big issue for XML then we
could be in for trouble: I smell intractable problems.
Cheers,
Miles
-- Miles Sabin Cromwell Media Internet Systems Architect 5/6 Glenthorne Mews +44 (0)181 410 2230 London, W6 0LJ msabin@cromwellmedia.co.uk England