Concept Tenure

The reified, time-scoped fact that a concept had a particular intension over an interval — conceptual change made first-class. When an agent community revises the definition or applicability of a concept, the old intension is retained as a closed tenure suppressed with gmeow:displayable false, never deleted (Principle 10). Carries its scope via gmeow:duringInterval (temporal module) and links to the concept via gmeow:conceptHoldsFor.

Structure

Subclass of: gmeow:TimeScopedRelation

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:ConceptTenure as a specialized kind of gmeow:TimeScopedRelation. 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

@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.

# --- Pre-2006 intension, closed and suppressed (Principle 10) ---------------------  # codespell:ignore
ex:planetTenurePre2006 a gmeow:ConceptTenure ;
    rdfs:label "pre-2006 intension of 'planet'"@en ;  # codespell:ignore
    gmeow:conceptHoldsFor ex:planet ;
    gmeow:duringInterval ex:pre2006Interval ;
    rdfs:comment "A body orbiting the Sun."@en ;
    gmeow:displayable false .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:TimeScopedRelation

Usage Advice

Use when

Avoid when

How to use

Examples