FROLIO – Formalizable Relationship-Oriented Language-Insensitive Ontology

Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web". This website is continually under construction - please send suggestions for improvements to the author.

Relationship Major Category - "Arrangement"

General Meaning

Arrangement is concerned with how things - either objects or activities - are arranged with respect to each other in space, time or some abstract pattern. Arrangement can be either between particular instances (e.g. named humans, individual objects, particular instances of tasks) or between representative members of some class.

Category Icon

The icon that Frolio uses for Arrangement shows a manual production line, in which the bottles are on a conveyor belt moving from front to back. The front person might be screwing on the top, the middle person sticking on a label, and the far person lifting the bottle off the conveyor. The workers are arranged in a sequence alongside the conveyor belt. The activities also happen in a sequence.

Relationship Role Diagram (for key to the letter codes click here)

The picture shows that two sorts of items that can be in an arrangement relationship A-B. In the top row are Activities (man with tool and cog wheels); in the second row are Things (which could be Abstract or Physical, Human, Animal or whatever). Role C (middle of top row) expresses (in some situations) that there may be a condition that determines whether or not the relationship holds. Things could be arranged by the use of a Tool I or according to an overall process pattern M. The theory Y gives the basis on which the ordering is determined, in context X. For particular instances the author Z could be a human observer; for representatives of classes the "author" is more likely to be the authority behind a convention or a rule.

	A	C	B
A				B
I			M
P				Z
	T	X	Y

Relationship Types in this Category

There are four main sub categories in this large group: arrangement in space, physical connection, arrangement in time, and arrangement in conceptual structure.

First is arrangement in space, code “As”. There are two further subdivisions, static and dynamic.

Main representative types of static, code “Ass” are:

is in front of, is behind
is above, is underneath
is inside, is outside
is next to, abuts on
faces, is opposite to
stands on, sits on
takes position in <pattern> - this refers to an ordering in one or more dimensions,
e.g. humans in an orderly queue, racehorses in a starting gate, racing cars on a starting grid, warplanes in a formation, cells in a spreadsheet etc.
corresponds to – in a spatial sense

Main representative types of dynamic, code “Asd” are:

visits
habituates – has habitat in, hangs around
orbits
follows – here meaning pursues
dances
threads

Next is physical connection, code “Ac”. Main representatives types are:

is connected to / is linked to - often implying flow of something, e.g. electricity, liquid, gas, heat
is attached to
interlocks with
interfaces to
hangs on
is stuck on
is attracted by, is repelled by – e.g. gravitational pull

Next we have arrangement in time, code “At”:

The roles involved here can be events or activities, either historical or planned.

happens/happened at some time
is scheduled at, is expected at
precedes, succeeds - one thing comes, in some sequence, before another.
succeeds is the inverse relationship. Variations:
- immediately precedes/follows
- comes some time before/after
waits for - implies the need for a signal, data or physical material to be passed on. Swimmers in a relay race have to wait for the previous swimmer in their team to reach the end of the pool. I have to wait for pay day before I can draw out more cash.
happens in parallel with - two activities can happen simultaneously; an example might be swimmers during a race, washing dishes while the kettle boils, etc
is conditional on - for activities, an activity may only happen IF a certain state of affairs is accepted as being so. This implies an associated waits for to find out the information that enables the condition to be tested. This is where the role C comes in.
is repeat of - implies the activity just done is repeated, with a condition that determines when the repeating stops. However just saying that an activity is an instance of a type is an instance of relationship.

Finally we need to include arrangement where the order is not in space or time, but relates to some abstract conceptual structure, code “Ab”. This covers four subdivisions, abstract structure, organisational arrangement, allocation and property/responsibility.

For abstract structure, code “Aba” we have:

is successor of – with respect to the structure in question. In mathematics, this could be the sequence of whole numbers 1,2,3, etc
is next in the structure to

For interpersonal and organisational arrangement, code “Abi” we have:

is a friend of - compare the Facebook meaning!
is team mate of
is competitor of
is blood relation of
is family relation of – including or excluding “by marriage” in-laws
is ancestor of, is descendant of
is boss of / is subordinate of in an organisation hierarchy – if between roles or people, implies a reporting relationship.
is in touch with – implying use of some correspondence mechanism, e.g. phone, email, letter

For allocation, typically between people (or resources) and roles, code “Abl” we have:

is allocated to – as a result of some assignment activity
occupies organisational role– has habitat in, hangs around

Finally for property and responsibility arrangement, between people and things, code “Abr” we have:

is owned by - A is the legal property of B, according to some legal system Y in context X.
is in the possession of – inverse might be has
is held by - A is being physically held by B
is carried by
is the responsibility of – this possibly overlaps with ownership

Examples

Space
The cat is sitting on the mat. Flt Lt Bigglesworth's plane takes position in pattern on the far left of the arrowhead formation. Lewis Hamilton takes the number 4 position on the grid (4th follows 3rd, but the position is offset). The cell in the spreadsheet I am trying to fix is G19. The earth orbits the sun. The dancers do a quickstep.

Physical connection
The computer I am typing this on is connected to the Internet (via some software, wires, plugs, sockets and my ISP).

Time
Washing hands follows using a toilet (class relationship). My eating breakfast on January 1st 2010 follows my getting out of bed on that day (instance relationship). Fred follows Jill in the bus queue. I used to walk alongside David in the St Faith's school crocodile walks. Sending a cheque waits for the Finance Director to sign it. The runner waits for the sound of the starting pistol. The dyer waits for the cloth to arrive from the weaver. The paperwork is done in parallel with assembling the goods for the order. Issuing a licence depends on the application having been approved. My dialling this phone number was a repeat of dialling that number when it didn't get through the first time.

Abstract arrangement
‘3’ is the successor of 2 in the sequence of whole numbers. “Taggart” comes next to “Tagg” in the alphabetic sequence of customers. Mrs Tagg is connected to Mrs Dale (as friend). Fred is above Harry in the company hierarchy. Harry has 3 guys reporting to him. John is allocated to the Olympic Dam project. George Ledger occupies the Finance Director position. Mike Rann is elected to the role of Premier of South Australia. Burnside library’s copy of “War and Peace” is held by Mrs Tagg. A personal copy of “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” is owned by Mrs Tagg.

Links to other Categories (these cross-links now fixed!)

Arrangement is in some order with	Classification is a	Distinguishing is different from	Interaction communicates with
Logic is deduction from	Motivation is motivated by	Partitioning is part of	Representation represents
Sensation is experienced by	Transformation is changed from	Utility is useful for	Volition is wanted by