What is the difference between the Event Taxonomy and the Syntax (or “fields”)?
Distinguishing the difference between the CEE Taxonomy and Syntax is the most common area for confusion. Instead of trying to describe the differences, it may be easier to understand an example. For instance, let us use the following event record: On January 1, 2008 at 10:00 a.m., Joe drove to the supermarket. Here, the general event, or taxonomy, is “a person went to a store.” The other details, such as the date, time, the person’s name, the type of store, and even the method of transportation, are unique to that specific instance and are provided by the syntax. In CEE, this allows for a user to easily identify all of the “going to the store” events, without having to understand all of the details. With a taxonomy, this concept can be abstracted further to find the events involving people or events where things move from one location to another. Similarly, in event logs from electronic systems, the data can be divided into two abstraction levels: the generic event type and the instanc
