E41 Appellation in Version 4.1

This class comprises all proper names, words, phrases or codes, either meaningful or not, that are used or can be used to identify a specific instance of some class within a certain context.

Instances of E41 Appellation do not identify objects by their meaning but by convention, tradition or agreement. From an implementation point of view, the class E41 Appellation is unlike most others, whose instances in a database can be considered as surrogates or references to real-world entities, in that each instance is nothing other than the E41 Appellation itself, i.e. the instance of E41 Appellation “Martin” is nothing other than the name “Martin” which should not be confused with any instance of E21 Person or persons called Martin.

Specific subclasses of E41 Appellation should be used when instances of E41 Appellation of a characteristic form are used for particular kinds of items. Instances of E49 Time Appellation, for example, which take the form of instances of E50 Date, can be easily recognised.

E41 Appellation should not be confused with the act of naming something. cf. E15 Identifier Assignment