The sharing analogy explores how analogical mapping can map objects in relations with different numbers of arguments. In the analogy, the source relation shared (Jim, candy, Cathy) maps to the target relation shared (Cindy, toys). In this analogy, the sharing relation need not provide all of its possible arguments for a particular instance of the relation. However, we would still expect humans to map Jim to Cindy and candy to toys.
The sharing model simulates this process by mapping the source object candy to the target object toys. Because this qualitative model simply shows an example of how path mapping can map between relations of different arguments, the running model simply displays the trace of this mapping process.