Partitive Relations

PartitiveHyperedge is the partitive specialization of Hyperedge — one comprehensive concept (the whole) decomposed into two or more partitive concepts (the parts) which fitted together constitute the comprehensive. Implements ISO 704:2022 §5.5.4.3.

This page covers what’s unique to partitive rakes. The shared model — MECE member multiplicity, criterion of subdivision, per-file storage, ExternalConcept as comprehensive — lives on the Hyperedges page.

ISO 704:2022 terminology

Role	ISO term
The whole concept	comprehensive concept (superordinate concept partitive)
Each part concept	partitive concept (subordinate concept partitive)
The relation	partitive relation
Siblings in one rake	coordinate concepts

All parts within one PartitiveHyperedge are coordinate concepts (ISO 12620): they share the comprehensive AND the criterion of subdivision.

Delimiting parts (ISO 704:2022 §5.5.4.2.2)

A delimiting part behaves like a delimiting characteristic: it distinguishes the comprehensive from coordinate concepts. In ISO 704 diagrams, delimiting parts are drawn with a bold (3x-width) line. The is_delimiting: true flag on a PartitiveMember encodes this — PartitiveMember is the only place this flag lives (it’s partitive-specific per ISO 704 §5.5.4.2.2; generic members carry delimitingCharacteristic text instead, see Generic Relations).

Delimiting is orthogonal to presence and count — a delimiting part can be compulsory, optional, or any other multiplicity. See the MECE multiplicity table on the Hyperedges page.

Canonical example (ISO 704:2022 §5.5.4.2.2): for “optomechanical mouse”:

Part	Delimiting?	Why?
mouse ball	yes	distinguishes from optical mice
x-axis roller	yes	distinguishes from optical mice
y-axis roller	yes	distinguishes from optical mice
infrared emitter	yes	distinguishes from mechanical mice
infrared sensor	yes	distinguishes from mechanical mice
circuit board	no	all mice have circuit boards
mouse button	no	all computer mice have buttons
mouse wheel	no	not found on all optomechanical mice (optional)

Optomechanical mouse — ISO 704:2022 canonical partitive example — Partitive hyperedge — ISO 704:2022 §5.5.4.2.2 canonical optomechanical-mouse example with delimiting parts.

YAML authoring

Per-file layout: relations/<comprehensive-id>/<criterion-slug>.yaml (see Hyperedges — Per-file storage for the rationale).

# relations/viml-112-02-09/measurement-result-composition.yaml
$id: viml-112-02-09/measurement-result-composition
type: partitive_relation
status: valid
comprehensive:
  source: VIM
  id: "112-02-09"
members:
  - ref: { source: VIM, id: "112-02-10" }
  - ref: { source: VIM, id: "112-03-26" }
completeness: complete
criterion:
  eng: measurement result composition

Optomechanical mouse (ISO 704:2022 §5.5.4.2.2)

# relations/example-optomechanical-mouse/physical-component-decomposition.yaml
$id: example-optomechanical-mouse/physical-component-decomposition
type: partitive_relation
status: valid
comprehensive: { source: EXAMPLE, id: optomechanical-mouse }
members:
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: mouse-ball }
    is_delimiting: true
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: x-axis-roller }
    is_delimiting: true
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: y-axis-roller }
    is_delimiting: true
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: infrared-emitter }
    is_delimiting: true
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: infrared-sensor }
    is_delimiting: true
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: circuit-board }
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: mouse-button }
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: mouse-wheel }
    presence: optional
completeness: complete
criterion:
  eng: physical component decomposition

Mouse wheel has presence: optional (not found on all optomechanical mice). The five delimiting parts distinguish “optomechanical mouse” from coordinate concepts “mechanical mouse” and “optical mouse”.

Two decompositions of the same comprehensive

A comprehensive can carry multiple partitive hyperedges, each with its own criterion:

# relations/example-bicycle/by-physical-structure.yaml
$id: example-bicycle/by-physical-structure
type: partitive_relation
comprehensive: { source: EXAMPLE, id: bicycle }
members:
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: frame }
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: wheels }
completeness: complete
criterion: { eng: physical structure }

# relations/example-bicycle/by-functional-subsystem.yaml
$id: example-bicycle/by-functional-subsystem
type: partitive_relation
comprehensive: { source: EXAMPLE, id: bicycle }
members:
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: structural }
  - ref: { source: EXAMPLE, id: propulsion }
completeness: complete
criterion: { eng: functional subsystem }

The coherence validator rejects duplicate (comprehensive, criterion) pairs as errors.

RDF emission

<concept/optomechanical-mouse> gloss:hasPartitiveHyperedge [
  a gloss:PartitiveHyperedge ;
  gloss:comprehensive <concept/optomechanical-mouse> ;
  gloss:hasPartitive
    [ a gloss:PartitiveMember ; gloss:ref <concept/mouse-ball> ; gloss:isDelimiting true ] ,
    [ a gloss:PartitiveMember ; gloss:ref <concept/mouse-wheel> ; gloss:presence <partitivePresence/optional> ] ;
  gloss:completeness <completeness/complete> ;
  gloss:criterion "physical component decomposition"@en ;
] .

Validation

The check-partitive-relation-coherence validator enforces partitive-specific invariants:

Cardinality: ≥ 2 partitive members per rake (ISO 704 “two or more”)
No duplicate (comprehensive, criterion) pairs
Invalid MECE combo (optional + at_least_one) rejected
Warning on is_delimiting: true + presence: optional — a delimiting part that’s optional is semantically incoherent

Shared validation rules (criterion-of-subdivision coherence, ExternalConcept-as-comprehensive, relation-file-shape) are listed under Hyperedges — Validators.