Concept

• CURIE: gmeow:Concept
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/Concept
• Category: class
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/concepts
• Box roles: TBox role (What is this?)

A category, schema, or abstraction held by an agent — a socially sustained cognitive representation. This is NOT the gUFO universal (which belongs to the gufo meta-level); a gmeow:Concept is a representational object sustained by agent usage and standpoint-indexed categorization claims.

Structure

Subclass of: gmeow:SocialObject

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:Concept as a specialized kind of gmeow:SocialObject. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Conceptual Change

• Source: slices/core/concepts/examples/conceptual-change.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-concepts-examples-conceptual-change

@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/concepts/conceptual-change/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix skos:  <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .



# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example — CONCEPTUAL CHANGE (, Task 2).
#
# Scenario: the concept "planet" changes its intension around the 2006 IAU  # codespell:ignore
# redefinition.  The pre-2006 intension ("a body orbiting the Sun") is recorded  # codespell:ignore
# as a closed gmeow:ConceptTenure that is suppressed with gmeow:displayable false
# (Principle 10).  The post-2006 intension ("a body that has cleared its  # codespell:ignore
# neighbourhood") is recorded as a new, open tenure.
#
# Pluto is then categorized under the concept "planet" from two coexisting
# standpoints (Principle 9): the IAU 2006 standpoint assigns a low typicality
# (it is a dwarf planet under the new intension), while a school-textbook  # codespell:ignore
# standpoint assigns a higher typicality (it is still presented as a planet in
# introductory materials).  Both categorizations coexist; neither is privileged.

# --- The concept "planet" ---------------------------------------------------------
ex:planet a gmeow:Concept ;
    rdfs:label "planet"@en .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:SocialObject

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: ontolex, skos

Linkages

Generated from the canonical mapping DSL. SSSOM files are the generated public interchange form for term equivalences.

Term Equivalences

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use to model a category, schema, frame, or abstraction that agents hold and apply to entities, when the concept itself — its intension, structure, change over time, or standpoint-indexed application — matters.

Avoid when

• Avoid using it as a gufo:Universal replacement (the gUFO universal is meta-level); avoid asserting one concept as the privileged or primary category for an entity when competing categorizations coexist (Principle 9).

How to use

• Mint the concept as a gmeow:SocialObject, link entities via gmeow:instanceOfConcept for the flat case, and promote to a gmeow:ConceptCategorization when vantage, typicality, temporal scope, or provenance must be explicit.

Scope notes

• The distinction from gufo:Universal is explicit: GMEOW Concepts live in the domain of socially sustained representations, not in the foundational ontology layer.

Examples

• ex:mammal a gmeow:Concept; rdfs:label "mammal"@en.