Elementary types

Elementary types are types that do not consist of properties or categories, e.g. types, which are considered as "known" by everybody or as kind of atomic. Typical elementary data types in a terminology model are text or number, which are considered as atomic from a conceptual point of view.

Elementary types are associated with certain kind of behavior, which is often not explicitly defined but expected to follow common and well-known rules defined for the elementary type (e.g. numerical operations for numbers). Similar, in some cases kind of default causalities are implicitly defined (e.g. exception as reaction on zero division).

It is a matter of view, what is considered as elementary type. In the "Terminology Model Reference" some proposed elementary types are listed.