We need to discuss the relationship: Revisiting relationships as modeling constructs

Abstract

In this paper we propose a novel ontological analysis of relations and relationships based on a re-visitation of a classic problem in the practice of conceptual modeling, namely relationship reification. Despite the two terms ‘relation’ and ‘relationship’ are often used interchangeably, we shall assume a radical difference between the two: a relation holds, while a relationship exists. Indeed, the relation holds because the relationship exists. We investigate the ontological the nature of relationships as truthmakers, proposing a view according to which they are endurants. Under this view, not only a relationship is responsible (with its existence) of the fact that a relation holds, but it also accounts (with its properties) of the way a relation holds and develops in time.