Let us assume that a database correctly reflects
the intended miniworld semantics (careful
database design! ). Due to the rigid
framework of data models, there will still
remain a semantic gap between the
miniworld and its database representation.
In other words, it is usually impossible to
represent all interesting semantics within a
database. The "remainder" has to be captured
by the application programs using the
database and/or it is part of the (hopefully
meaningful ! ) interpretation of the result of
database queries by the user himself.
However, the ultimate goal of database systems
is to provide for concepts that allow to
keep the semantic gap as small as possible
and thus permit to represent most of the
salient semantics in the database itself.