Skip to content

Change prevents to prohibits  #1305

@rjyounes

Description

@rjyounes

Our definition of prevents refers to intentions (e.g., laws) that prohibit certain behavior. However, the word "prevents" has two meanings:

  1. An action or object that makes certain behavior impossible - e.g., a fence or the act of installing a fence that prevents someone from entering private land
  2. The law that prohibits someone from entering private land marked with "no trespassing" signs.

Do we want the predicate to encompass both definitions or only, as currently, the second?

For both meanings:

  • Change rdfs:domain to gist:domainIncludes
  • Broaden the text definition and examples.

For only the second meaning: Change the property name to prohibits. Granted, "prohibits" can sometimes have the first sense, but it seems to me less likely to be interpreted that way. "Forbids" is perhaps less ambiguous but has a less formal or legal tone.

Note also that prevents implies successful prohibition, which is not what we are trying to capture, I believe. Laws that prohibit certain actions do not always succeed in preventing them. So I conclude that prohibits is the better term.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

effort: very lowRequires less than 1 hour to completeimpact: minorNew, backward-compatible functionality (does not change inferences; e.g., adding a term)

Type

No type

Projects

Status

In Review

Milestone

No milestone

Relationships

None yet

Development

No branches or pull requests

Issue actions