statement type
Each statement in MindModel has a specific statement type.
Most statement types have three parts: subject noun type, verb, and object noun type.
For example, in the statement:
person: Kent Ortiz <knows how to use> software package: Adobe Photoshop
the noun "person: Kent Ortiz" is the subject noun of the statement.
So the subject noun type is the type of the subject noun, which in this case is "person".
Similarly, the object noun of the statement is "software package: Adobe Photoshop".
So the object noun type is the type of the object noun, which in this case is "software package".
Therefore the statement type of the statement:
person: Kent Ortiz <knows how to use> software package: Adobe Photoshop
is:
person: <knows how to use> software package.
You can think of the statement type as the statement without specific nouns.
Other statement types include:
person: <is friends with> person:
person: <loves> food:
organization: <bought> product:
To view a complete list of statement types, use the "Help Menu: Help with Statement Types" command.
There are over 160 noun types in MindModel.
There are over 620 verb types in MindModel.
So if you consider all the possible combinations of subject noun type/verb type/object noun type, there are 160 x 620 x 160 = 15,872,000 possible statement types.
However, some of these combinations don't make sense.
For example:
person: <is allergic to> color:
song: <cleans> animal:
cd: <cooks> grade:
The MindModel Grammar contains about 45,000 statement types that do make sense.
Let's imagine you're using the Add/Edit Statement Wizard to add a statement for a person.
You choose "reads" as your verb.
MindModel presents you with list of meaningful object noun types for "person reads":
article
book
book type
collection
document
law
magazine
newspaper
rule
script
web page
web site
These are all things that people read. There are 148 other noun types that MindModel does not put in the list, because they don't make sense with "person reads". Statement types help lead you through the data-entry process.
Power-User Tip: At the beginning of this section, we mentioned that "most" statement types have three parts. Some statement types have two parts. These statement types are those that use intransitive verbs, i.e. verbs that don't take direct objects.
The intransitive verbs in MindModel are:
<commits suicide>
<dies>
<goes out of business>
<has a name spelled incorrectly>
<is born>
<is broken>
<is correct>
<is double-fictional>
<is fictional>
<is founded>
<is having an IPO>
<is incorrect>
<is not correct>
<is not-for-profit>
<is out of business>
<retires>
<solves itself>
The statement types that contain these verbs have only two parts, such as:
person: <is born>
organization: <is having an IPO>
problem: <solves itself>
etc.