User:Lucas Werkmeister/P642 considered harmful
 | This is an essay. It expresses the opinions and ideas of some Wikidata contributors, but may not have wide support. Feel free to update this page as needed, or use the discussion page to propose major changes. |
 | This page in a nutshell: The property of (P642) should be avoided and phased out. |
The property P642, labeled of
in English, is one of the most flexible qualifiers on Wikidata.
Its flexibility makes it highly convenient when adding data, but also makes data entered this way much harder to use and interpret.
For this reason, its use should be discouraged, and eventually phased out.
One way in which this flexibility becomes apparent is when translating it.
It’s been known for years that some languages have no single word (or phrase) that can represent the many meanings of the word “of” in English,
with Property talk:P642#Translation dating back to 2014.
Even in languages that have a straightforward translation of this preposition,
it is not always used in the same way:
for example, the property is labeled von
in German,
and von
is generally a straightforward translation of of
,
but while it is natural in English to talk of ten inches of snow
,
in German one wouldn’t say dreißig Zentimeter von Schnee
.
(In such cases, German actually uses no preposition at all: dreißig Zentimeter Schnee.
)
Those many meanings of “of” include (but are not limited to):
- affiliation of the subject
- Schleswig-Holstein Magazin (Q2239259)instance of (P31)television program (Q15416)
of (P642)NDR Fernsehen (Q879451) (p) – the TV program is associated with this public broadcaster; should use original broadcaster (P449), production company (P272), or distributed by (P750) - EB-11 / Andromeda (Q76812409)instance of (P31)encyclopedia article (Q13433827)
of (P642)Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition (Q867541) (p) – the article is part of this encyclopedia; should use part of (P361) - Kuhap (Q96650979)instance of (P31)female given name (Q11879590)
of (P642)Amis (Q205006) (p) – the given name is used by this people; should use culture (P2596) or language of work or name (P407) - scope of the statement
- Manuel Velázquez (Q1367175)number of matches played/races/starts (P1350)2
of (P642)Intercontinental Cup (Q182473) (p) – the footballer has not just played two matches in his entire career - Riddler (Q836789)performer (P175)John Astin (Q458464)
of (P642)Batman (Q1247201) (p) – the character is not always portrayed by this actor; should use cast member (P161) and character role (P453) in the inverse direction - Nikolaj Fedorovič Findejzen (Q4484802)author name string (P2093)Ф.
of (P642)Riemann's Music Dictionary (Q27680201) (p) – the author is not always referred to using this string - scope of the subject
- Plešnerová (Q106113097)instance of (P31)family name (Q101352)
of (P642)female human (Q84048852) (p) – contrast this with the totally different use of of (P642) on Kuhap (Q96650979), also a name, above! - Basic Hanja for educational use (Q485267)instance of (P31)list (Q12139612)
of (P642)hanja character (Q55712979) (p) – should use is a list of (P360) - Bökkers discography (Q97381888)instance of (P31)discography (Q273057)
of (P642)Bökkers (Q25935346) (p) - nature of the main value
- Ann Roberts – Richard J. Smith. Crash course in library services to people with disabilities. (Q104697876)URL (P2699)https://bollettino.aib.it/article/view/4994
of (P642)metadata (Q180160) (p) – the URL is, specifically, a URL for metadata about the article; should use object has role (P3831) - abook (Q9138324)URL (P2699)https://sourceforge.net/p/abook/git/ci/master/tree/ChangeLog
of (P642)changelog (Q255135) (p) – the URL is, specifically, a URL for the changelog of the item; should use object has role (P3831) - narrowing of an aspect of the main value
- La Cambe German war cemetery (Q567074)instance of (P31)war cemetery (Q1707610)
of (P642)World War II (Q362) (p) – narrows the “war” part of “war cemetery” - 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria County, Texas (Q94268267)instance of (P31)disease outbreak (Q3241045)
of (P642)COVID-19 (Q84263196) (p) – narrows the “disease” part of “disease outbreak” - Mini-Me (Q1284314)instance of (P31)fictional clone (Q18327525)
of (P642)Dr. Evil (Q430599) (p) – narrows the “clone” part of “fictional clone” - February 5–6, 2010 North American blizzard (Q2071241)precipitation height (P3036)32.7 inch (Q218593)
of (P642)snow (Q7561) (p) – narrows the unit of “32.7 inches” - narrowing of another qualifier
- Catania (Q1903)significant event (P793)destruction (Q17781833)
cause of destruction (P770)volcanic eruption (Q7692360) of (P642)Mount Etna (Q16990) (p) – the volcanic eruption was specifically an eruption of Mount Etna; consider how this would be nonsensical in the other order: Catania (Q1903)significant event (P793)destruction (Q17781833) of (P642)Mount Etna (Q16990) cause of destruction (P770)volcanic eruption (Q7692360) – would this now mean that Mount Etna was destroyed by a volcanic eruption? - link item for part of subject’s label
- duck meat (Q542042)subclass of (P279)meat (Q10990)
of (P642)duck (Q3736439) (p) – should use natural product of taxon (P1582) - martyrdom (Q46999986)subclass of (P279)death (Q4)
of (P642)martyr (Q6498826) (p) - personal life (Q2867027)subclass of (P279)life (Q3)
of (P642)person (Q215627) (p) - personal anti-tank weapon (Q10912680)subclass of (P279)weapon (Q728)
of (P642)anti-tank warfare (Q316936) (p) – should use has use (P366) - nudity in film (Q7068392)subclass of (P279)nudity (Q10791)
of (P642)film (Q11424) (p) – is the film itself nude? - censorship in Turkey (Q1185409)subclass of (P279)censorship (Q543)
of (P642)Turkey (Q43) (p) – is Turkey, the country, being censored? - Monarch of Spain (Q58637583)subclass of (P279)monarch (Q116)
of (P642)Spain (Q29) (p) – should use applies to jurisdiction (P1001) - general relation
- Naples Ristorante E Bar (Q76157041)instance of (P31)restaurant (Q11707)
of (P642)Italian cuisine (Q192786) (p) – should use cuisine (P2012) - line frequency (Q184893)instance of (P31)concept (Q151885)
of (P642)technology of television (Q1407254) (p) – should use facet of (P1269) - Passage The Pays (Q100365407)instance of (P31)street (Q79007)
of (P642)Martinique (Q17054) (p) – should use location (P276) or located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) - AnaLouise Keating (Q30070209)occupation (P106)professor (Q121594)
of (P642)women's studies (Q35069) (p) – should use field of work (P101) - I don’t even know
- impossible color (Q2998796)subclass of (P279)color (Q1075)
of (P642)perception (Q160402) (p) - Quirites (Q636965)subclass of (P279)human (Q5)
of (P642)Roman citizenship (Q213810) (p)
Hopefully this list demonstrates that trying to make sense of of (P642) is a hopeless endeavour. Of course, all of these statements make some sense, to a human reader at least. But it would be absurd to suggest that of (P642) represents any one kind of relation between items.
(Side note: these are just arbitrary examples, hand-picked from random “of” qualifiers and some similar queries. I haven’t checked who added these statements, and I don’t mean to place any blame on those editors. Many of these specific statements were probably just based on other statements, where someone else made the decision to use of (P642) in this way – and at the end of the day, the problem is not that individual users are misusing the property: it’s that the property is available for use at all. It motivates this kind of muddled modeling by its very existence.)
It is time to ask ourselves if this property should be kept or not. And as we look at P642, we find that this does not spark joy. It is time to say thanks to it, and let it go.