meaning/semantics of Target role scope=instance

[kevingupton]

What is the meaning and semantics behind the scope=[instance/classifier] attribute on Association target roles and source roles?  

I understand this is a reference to a class vs. instances of that class.  My task at hand is for data modeling, so would this scope tag apply to data structures (as opposed static references in source code)?

I also wonder if this is akin to "punning" in OWL when referencing Classes from instances?

[Eve]

The most common reference would be for code languages, many of which include a "static" keyword for attributes that belong to the class instead of the objects.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

The most common reference would be for code languages, many of which include a "static" keyword for attributes that belong to the class instead of the objects.

Along similar lines to Simon's observation..

I'm doing Ontological Modelling (a high order form of Data Modeling), where we derive the data model from the meaning and interrelationships of the concepts involved.
In our models we need to have two types of Associations / Aggregations / Compositions.
Some Associations are between the concepts and others are between the instances of the concepts (but visually - still between the same two vertices).  We use the Scope property to differentiate them.  We pick up on the scope in a shapescript and render the relationships in a differentiated fashion.

Given classical data modelling, where the tables are the set of instances and the linkages (typically as foreign key constraints) link instances, there's no need to move from the default Instance scope.

Paolo