Knowledge Representation/Translation in RDF+OWL, N3, KIF, UML and
the WebKB-2 languages (For-Links, Frame-CG, Formalized English)

Dr Philippe Martin
(Note: this is a work in progress; many parts need to be refined)


Table of Contents

  1. Knowledge Representation Languages
  2. Existential Quantification, Conjunction, Relations, Functions
  3. Contextualizations (meta-statements)
  4. Identities, Names and Authorship
  5. Universal Quantification, Definitions, Implications
    1. Simple Definition/Assertion Via Relations-From/To-a-Class
    2. Definition
    3. Domain, Range and Cardinality of Relations
    4. InstanceOf, SubtypeOf and Subtype Partition
    5. Non-binary relations
    6. Synthesis: a Typical Example
    7. Relations-From/To-a-Class Used As Shortcuts
    8. Lambda Abstractions, Qualitative Valuation
  6. Numerical Quantification
  7. Alternatives and Isolated Collections
  8. Negation, Difference, Exclusion, Complement, Reverse
  9. Relations from Collections and Quantifier Precedence
  10. Higher-order Statements
  11. Ontology-dependent Representations
    1. Measures
    2. Intervals
    3. Qualitative Valuations



1. Knowledge Representation Languages

General terminology.
In this document, an ontology is a set of partial or complete machine-readable definitions for "formal terms" referring to objects ("resources" in OWL/RDF/XML terminology). Objects are either represented as classes (i.e., types: concept types or relation types) or individuals (types can have instances, individuals cannot). The definitions associated to a formal term can be used as semantic constraints for checking its use in other knowledge representation statements. Statements are either definitions (partial or complete definitions) or assertions (e.g., facts, data, beliefs or hypothesis). Like assertions, definitions can be used for knowledge inferencing. UML data models can be viewed as ontologies but their roles is (also) to prescribe how and which individuals should be entered by users rather than simply describing some relationships between some objects of a world. Hence, compared to ontologies, data models require additional kinds of constraints. However, apart from highlighting this rarely noted distinction between "knowledge description constraints" and "knowledge entering constraints", this document does not propose special (ad-hoc?) representations for the latter constraints since they are not dealt with in the "knowledge representation" litterature.

Goal. This document was originally intended to extend UML in order to cover common knowledge representation features useful to write definitions or assertions, and for each feature the mapping with other models and notations is illustrated: notations using the OWL model, KIF-based notations, and high-level notations from WebKB-2. However, the mapping with UML proved difficult: in the various cases below, UML examples are given instead of the exact translations of what is expressed in the other languages (i.e, notations + models). The OMG's ODM (Ontology Definition Metamodel) proposes partial (and sometimes total) structural mappings between UML, OWL, ER, CL and Topic Maps. This document is essentially a case-by-case comparison of OWL, KIF, their usual notations, and higher-level notations. If you wish one more language to be compared here, send me the translations in this language of the examples given below and I'll include them (citing you as author of these translations).

KIF, OWL, and their notations.
KIF refers to a Fist-Order Predicate Calculus (FOPC) based model and its LISP-based notation. KIF has been designed and used to specify the logical denotation of many other knowledge representation languages (KRLs). KIF is the current de-facto standard for knowledge interchange, and is the notation and basis used by the main knowledge sharing international projects of the knowledge representation community: Common Logic, SUO and IFF.
OWL is a model that follows the principles of terminological logics languages and hence frame-based languages. OWL includes the RDF and RDFS model. OWL can be represented in KIF (the reverse is false). OWL and its RDF/XML notation are W3C recommendations (from now on and except when the expression "OWL model" is used, references to OWL also refer to RDF/XML, the RDF model and its extension named RDFS). Notation 3 (or N3) is a syntax sometimes used as a more readable alternative to RDF/XML; it is more expressive than RDF/XML but less than KIF.
The RDF model and the OWL model are language ontologies: like metamodels, they propose formal terms for concepts and relations (e.g., subtypeOf) that are necessary to express statements regardless of what the statements express. KRLs such as KIF make their language ontologies implicit. Content ontologies are like models, i.e., they contain formal terms referring to objects in the modeled real/imaginary world. RDF/XML is an XML textual notation for statements using the RDF metamodel. Statements using the OWL metamodel are usually written using RDF/XML but they can also be written in KIF: these two notations are used below and respectively named XOWL and KOWL. More precisely, since the OWL model can be divided into three increasingly expressive metamodels - OWL lite, OWL DL and OWL full - the least expressive part of OWL involved will be specified by using the terms XOWLL, XOWLD, XOWLF, KOWLL, KOWLD and XOWLF.

Higher-level languages.
Knowledge entering and sharing requires higher-level languages (models+notations) than OWL and KIF. Here, "higher-level" means more user-friendly and more "normalizing", i.e., restricting the number of ways something can be expressed. This is achieved by providing (linear or graphic) graph-based expressive languages with high-level constructs such as extended quantifiers (e.g., "at least 65%", "most" and "2 to 4"). Below, the high-level notations used below are used in the WebKB knowledge server: Formalized English (FE), Frame-CG (FCG) and For-Links (FL) (since FL is more adequate for taxonomies, FL and FCG/FE will rarely be presented as alternatives for translations). These notations [Martin 2002] were mainly derived from the original linear form of the Conceptual Graph model [Sowa 1992] and to a less extent, Frame-Logics and KIF. The WebKB model [Martin 2001] is an extension and normalization of the CG model. I have converted this model into a MOF2 metamodel and named it "KRM". Its MOF HUTN format, which I named "KRF", is one of the formats used below when UML needs to be extended.



2. Existential Quantification, Conjunction, Relations, Functions

A "conjunctive existentially quantified statement" is a set of existentially quantified objects (named or anonymous objects) possibly connected by relations. Such statements are very common and nearly all KRLs permit to represent them. They also have a nice property: the generalization of such a statement (a simple and common graph operation consisting of replacing an individual in the statement by a class or a class by one of its superclass, or by removing a relation) is a logical deduction [Sowa, 1984]. Hence conversely, looking for such specializations of such a statement/query retrieve "logical" answers. This property can be extended to such statements with positive contexts (see next section) [Chein and Mugnier, 1997] or distributive sets but not to statements including some universal quantification, negation, modality, OR relation, OR-set, etc. Looking for specializations of the last cases is still a simple way to retrieve "interesting" answers (e.g., "john thinks there is no employee under 25" in answer to "is there an employee under 30?") but these are not "logical" answers.

Here is an example. From now on and until the "Definition" Section, for readability reasons, object names are most often used instead of identifiers. Furthermore, the creator of each statement is not represented since an additional context would be required for that. "FE" is for Formalized English.

E:     Tom owns a dog that is not Snoopy.
FE:    Tom is owner of a dog different_from Snoopy.
FCG:   [Tom, owner of: (a dog != Snoopy)]
KIF:   (exists ((?x dog)) (and (owner ?x Tom) (/= ?x Snoopy)))
XOWLL: <Dog><owner><owl:Thing rdf:about="#Tom"/></owner>
         <owl:differentFrom rdf:resource="#Snoopy"/></Dog>
N3:    [a :Dog; :owner :Tom;  owl:differentFrom :Snoopy].
KRF:   TNode{term:Tom sourceOf:
         Relation{rType:owner dest: QNode{cType:dog sourceOf:
           Relation {rType: different_from dest: TNode{term:Snoopy} }}}}.

Related simple example in UML:


Example of Conjunctive Existentially Quantified Sentence
(excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)



3. Contextualizations (meta-statements)

Contexts permit to represent statements over statements, and hence, for example, situation duration and statement negation, modalities, creator and argumentation relations. Contextualised statements are represented via delimitors such as '(...) and ^(...) in KIF or keywords (e.g., aboutEach in RDF/XML and hence OWL. In FCG and FE, statements always have delimitors (`...' in FE, [...] in FCG) and the context of a statement may be specified by adding a list of relations (delimited by a pair of parenthesis). These relations are about the statement, or in other words, about each relation of the statement.

Given the ill-designed RDF model and syntax (ill-designed mostly because of the difficulties created by the choice of a triple-based model and an XML syntax), the meaning and use of aboutEach is often problematic; the W3C Working Draft of 23/01/2003 revising the W3C Recommendation of 22/02/1999 about RDF/XML removed aboutEach from the grammar. However, since it has not (yet) been replaced, any practical way to represent relations from statements or collections with RDF/XML has also been removed. Given these are basic and unavoidable features of knowledge/ontology representation, this removal is one more evidence that RDF/XML (and indirectly OWL) is totally unfit for such purpose. In order to present translations in OWL, this removal of aboutEach is ignored below (thus, the assumption is that a similar construct will one day be introduced as a replacement).

In the following example, to represent the negation of a statement in OWL, an intermediary class is created for this statement and then an instance of the complement of this intermediary class is refered to. Although syntactically correct, it is doubtful that an inference engine will be able to exploit such an indirection any time soon.

E:     Tom believes Mary likes him (now) in 2003, and that before she did not.
FE:    Tom is believer of ` *p `Mary is liking Tom' at time 2003'
       and is believer of `!*p is before 2003'.
FCG:   [Tom, believer of: [*p [Mary, agent of:(a liking,object:Tom)], time:2003],
             believer of: [!*p, before: 2003] ]
KIF:   (exists (?p)
         (and (= ?p '(exists ((?x liking)) (and (agent *l Mary) (object ?l Tom))))
              (believer ^(time ,?p 2003) Tom)
              (believer ^(before (not ,?p) 2003) Tom)))
XOWLD: <rdf:Description rdf:bagID="p">
         <Liking><agent><rdf:Description rdf:about="#Mary"/></agent>
                 <object rdf:resource="#Tom"/></Liking></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:bagID="now"  rdf:aboutEach="#p"  time ="2003"/>
       <owl:Class rdf:bagID="class_of_not_p">
         <owl:complementOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
           <owl:Class><owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
              <owl:Thing rdf:about="#p"/></owl:oneOf>
           </owl:Class></owl:complementOf></owl:Class>
       <class_of_not_p rdf:bagID="not_p"/>
       <rdf:Description rdf:bagID="past"  rdf:aboutEach="#not_p"  before="2003"/>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#now"><believer rdf:resource="#Tom"/>
       </rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#past"><believer rdf:resource="#Tom"/>
       </rdf:Description>
N3:    {{[a :Liking;  :agent :Mary; :object :Tom]} rdf:ID :p;  :time "2003"} believer :Tom.
       :not_p negation :p.  {:not_p :before "2003"} believer :Tom.
KRF:   TNode {term:Tom
         sourceOf:isReversed Relation{rType:believer dest:
           ENode {embeddedNode1: ENode part: {embeddedNode1:
                    TNode{term:Mary sourceOf:isReversed
                      Relation{rType:agent dest: QNode{cType:liking sourceOf:
                        Relation{rType:object dest: TNode{Term:Tom} }}}}}
                  sourceOf:Relation{rType:time dest:
                    QNode{cType:"year" quantifier:Quantifier{num:"2003"}}}}}
         sourceOf:isReversed Relation{rType:believer dest:
           ENode {embeddedNode1: isNegated ENode {embeddedNode1Ref: p}
                  sourceOf: Relation{rType:before dest:
                  QNode{cType:year quantifier:Quantifier{num:"2003"}}}}}}



4. Identities, Names and Authorship

An identity relation may be seen as specifying that two classes are identical, or from another viewpoint, as a way to associate various identifiers to a same object.

In this document, an ad-hoc representation is used for representing authorship in RDF/XML (as in the example below): the relation/property dc:creator is used in the same way xml:lang is used in XML, that is, as if it was a special XML attribute of another property. Using a metastatement (as in the previous section) would be more correct but would reduce too much the readability (and hence understandability) of the given examples.

bottom is a constant in KIF; in the other notations, the identifier kif#bottom is used.

E:     According to pm, pm#nothing is identical to owl#nothing,
       and according to Joe, owl#nothing identical to kif#bottom.
FL:    pm#nothing   =  owl#nothing (pm)  kif#bottom (Joe);
FCG:   [pm#nothing, = owl#nothing](pm);  [pm#nothing, = kif#bottom](Joe);
KIF:   (dc#Creator '(= pm#nothing  owl#nothing) pm)
       (dc#Creator '(= pm#nothing  bottom) Joe)
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(owl#equivalentClass pm#nothing owl#nothing ) pm) 
       (dc#Creator '(owl#equivalentClass pm#nothing bottom) Joe) 
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:about="±Nothing">
         <owl:equivalentClass rdf:resource="&kif;Bottom" dc:creator="Joe"/>
         <owl:equivalentClass rdf:resource="&owl;Nothing" dc:creator="pmartin@dstc.edu.au"/>
       </owl:Class>
N3:    {pm:Nothing owl:equivalentClass kif:Bottom}  dc:creator "Joe".
       {pm:Nothing owl:equivalentClass owl:Nothing} dc:creator "pmartin@dstc.edu.au".

For relations between relation types (i.e., between "properties" in OWL terminology), OWL Lite requires the use of owl#equivalent_property instead of owl#equivalent_class. Similarly, for relations between individuals, OWL Lite requires the use of owl#same_individual_as. In all cases, owl#same_as may be used instead in OWL Full, and there is no change in the other notations; owl#same_as may only be used in OWL Full because it asserts equality (identity) not simply equivalence.


Although names are not definitions, identifiers are also names and hence, it is suitable to detail now how names can be associated to objects.

E:     There is a class named "dog" and "domestic_dog" by wn, and "doggy"
       and "chien" by pm; "dog" is a key name for wn; "chien" is a French name.
FL:    wn#dog__domestic_dog  name: "doggy" (pm) "chien" (pm, language: wn#French);
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(rdfs#label wn#dog "dog") pm)  ;;"class" not represented
       (dc#Creator '(rdfs#label wn#dog "dogmestic_dog") wm)
       (dc#Creator '(rdfs#label wn#dog "doggy") pm)
       (dc#Creator '(xml#lang '(rdfs#label wn#dog "chien") fr) pm)
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:about="&wn;dog">
         <rdfs:label dc:Creator="http://wordnet.princeton.edu/">dog</rdfs:label>
         <rdfs:label dc:Creator="http://wordnet.princeton.edu/">domestic_dog</rdfs:label>
         <rdfs:label dc:Creator="pmartin@dstc.edu.au">doggy</rdfs:label>
         <rdfs:label xml:lang="fr" dc:Creator="pmartin@dstc.edu.au">chien</rdfs:label>
       </owl:Class>
N3:    {wn:dog rdfs:label "dog", "domestic_dog"} dc:creator "http://wordnet.princeton.edu/".
       {wn:Dog rdfs:label "doggy"} dc:creator "pmartin@dstc.edu.au".
       { {wn:Dog rdfs:label "chien"} xml:lang "fr"} dc:creator "pmartin@dstc.edu.au".



5. Universal Quantification, Definitions, Implications

Distinctions between assertions and definitions.
Definitions differ from assertions-using-a-universal-quantifier in the sense that definitions cannot be false. For example, defining a class with name "rectangle" as a kind of car is not false, even if "rectangle" is not an intuitive name for a class of car. However, like an assertion, a new definition may happen to be inconsistent with already entered definitions or assertions. In such a case, various strategies can be used. In a multi-user Knowledge Base Management System (shared KBMS), the new definition may be denied (i.e., the user has to associate its definition to a more appropriate class) or accepted (then, in order to keep the knowledge base consistent and according to the new definition, a more appropriate class must be automatically created, given an identifier and inserted into the class generalization hierarchy). For the management of shared knowledge (in a cooperatively built KB or in a KB automatically built by collecting knowledge from various private KBs), it is important that the creator of each object, relation or statement can be formally associated to them, either manually by the knowledge provider or automatically (then, knowledge filtering can be done on the creators, using their identifiers, superclasses or statements about them). Since this is one of the (many) things RDF/XML is not tailored for, comments will simply be used in the OWL-related translations (the "Context" section will also show how creators can be associated in more formal but ad-hoc ways to RDF/XML representations).
A class definition is complete if it specifies necessary and sufficient conditions for objects to be instance of the class, or partial if it specifies either necessary or sufficient conditions. Setting a relation subtypeOf from a class to another is a simple way to define one necessary condition for the source class, and one sufficient condition for the destination class. (However, if this relation is set by someone who has not created the source/destination class, the relation may be treated as an assertion rather than a definition for knowledge inferencing/checking and inconsistency handling purposes). This document first lists simple definitions/assertions via such "relations-from/to-a-class", then presents various features for expressing statements (definitions or assertions), and concludes with a section on definitions using such features. In the first and last sections, only identifiers will be used for objects. In the other sections, for maximum readability, object names will often be used instead of object identifiers, but statements will still be asumed unambiguous (either because each name happens to refer to only one object or the ambiguity can be automatically resolved by exploiting semantic constraints, e.g., relation signatures). In a KBMS, ambiguous statements should not be accepted.

Universal quantification does not exist in OWL but using class definitions is close enough. The difference is that a universal statement can be false whereas definitions cannot (a definition does not assert a fact but only lists conditions for membership to a class and thus is neither true nor false but some people say that a definition is "always true, by definition"). Furthermore, when two users give conflicting definitions about a same class, this can be adequately resolved by creating two different classes (since the conflict reveals that the authors of the definitions do not think about the same concept/object), whereas resolving conflicting assertions (or beliefs when each assertion has a creator) implies selecting between them (or none of them) and this is a matter of trust or strategy (e.g., the simple strategy of always selecting the most specialized assertion).

The following example requires OWL Full because part is a transitive relation. Otherwise, OWL Lite would have been sufficient (the used cardinality is not more than 1).

E:     Animals have exactly one head.
FE:    Any animal has for part 1 head.
FCG:   [any animal, part: 1 head]
KIF:   (forall ((?a animal)) (exists1 '?h (and (head ?h) (part ?a '?h))))
XOWLF: <rdf:Property rdf:ID="headPart">
         <rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="#part"/>
         <rdfs:range rdf:resource="#Head"/> </rdf:Property>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="#Animal">
         <rdfs:subClassOf><owl:Restriction>
           <owl:cardinality rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">1
           </owl:cardinality> <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#headPart"/>
                          </owl:Restriction></rdfs:subClassOf></owl:Class>
N3:    :headPart a rdf:Property;  rdfs:subPropertyOf :part;  rdfs:range :Head.
       :Animal rdfs:subClassOf
          [a owl:Restriction;  owl:onProperty :headPart;  owl:cardinality 1]. 
KRF:   QNode {cType:animal quantifier:Quantifier{kind:any}
         sourceOf: Relation {rType:part dest:
           QNode {cType:head quantifier:Quantifier{num:"1"}}}}

Here is a KIF definition of exists1:
(defrelation exists1 (?var ?predicate) :=
  (truth ^(exists (,?var)
    (and (,?predicate ,?var) (forall(?y) (=> (,?predicate ?y) (= ,?var ?y)))))))



Definition

A class (concept type or relation type) definition states necessary and/or sufficient conditions for objects to be instance of this class. Some KRLs (but not OWL nor KIF) also accept "prototypes" (as in "a prototypical bird is able to fly"). Since I advocate the use of extended quantifiers, I think that statements using the "most" quantifier (or a more precise one, e.g., "78%") and contexts (e.g., to specify the location and time, as in "'78% of birds are able to fly' in australia, in 2003") should be used instead of prototypes.

Any statement (using any of the above presented features) can be used in a definition. However, inference engines can only use simple definitions to categorize classes into a generalization hierarchy, or find the most specialized class (or classes) for an object according to the statements using it (or in frame-based terminology, according to the properties associated to it).

Setting a subtypeOf relation from a class to another is a way to give necessary conditions for the source class and sufficient conditions for the destination class. In OWL, this is the only way in OWL, and the use of temporary classes called "restrictions" (some restricted forms of lambda-abstractions) plus relations such as owl#intersection_of, owl#union_of and owl#complement_of permit to create complex definitions. The direct use of these three relations, owl#equivalent_class, owl#equivalent_property or owl#inverse_of actually define necessary and sufficient conditions. Thus, the following example of a partial definition can be changed into a complete definition by replacing "rdfs:subClassOf" by "owl:equivalentClass" in the OWL translations (and ":=>" by ":=" in FCG and KIF). As announced in the first section, class identifiers are now used instead of class names in the examples.

E:     According to "pm", a person necessarily has for parent a person.
FCG:   [type wn#person (*x) :=> [*x, pm#parent: a wn#person] ](pm)
KIF:   (dc#Creator '(defrelation wn#person (?p) :=>
                      (exists ((?p2 #person)) (pm#parent ?p ?p2))) pm)
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:about="&wn;Person">
         <rdfs:subClassOf><owl:Restriction>
                            <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="±parent"/>
                            <owl:toClass rdf:resource="&wn;Person"/>
                          </owl:Restriction></rdfs:subClassOf>
         <rdfs:comment>According to pmartin@dstc.edu.au</rdfs:comment>
       </owl:Class>
N3:    {wn:Person rdfs:subClassOf
           [a owl:Restriction; owl:onProperty pm:parent; owl:toClass wn:Person]
       } dc:Creator "pmartin@dstc.edu.au".
KRF:   Definition { creator: User pm
         dType:CType person  kind:NC  parameter:("x")
         embeddedNode1: QNode {var:"x" sourceOf:Relation{rType:"pm#parent"
           dest: QNode {cType:person} }}}

Related simple example in UML:


A definition by necessary and sufficient conditions (excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)

In FCG and KIF, the definition of relation types is identical to the definition of other classes except for the number of parameters (variables). In OWL, there is no variable, and hence no syntactic means to give a definition to a relation type (apart from indicating its superclass, domain and range).

In addition to definitions by intension, OWL permits definitions by extention. I have not encountered such definitions in ontologies. If I do, I will extend the FL grammar to represent them as indicated below, i.e., by accepting "closed instance partitions".

E:     The class pm#Da_Ponte_opera_of_Mozart has only three instances:
       pm#Le_Nozze_di_Figaro, pm#Don_Giovanni and pm#Cosi_fan_tutte.
FL:    pm#Da_Ponte_opera_of_Mozart
        instance: {(pm#Le_Nozze_di_Figaro,pm#Don_Giovanni,pm#Cosi_fan_tutte)}(exclusive);
        //"{(...)}" refer to a complete AND-SET, hence here a complete "instance partition".
FCG:   [a pm#Da_Ponte_opera_of_Mozart,
         = OR{pm#Le_Nozze_di_Figaro,pm#Don_Giovanni,pm#Cosi_fan_tutte}]
KIF:   (<=> (pm#Da_Ponte_opera_of_Mozart ?x)
            (or (= ?x pm#Le_Nozze_di_Figaro) (?x pm#Don_Giovanni)
                (= ?x pm#Cosi_fan_tutte)))
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:ID="±Da_Ponte_opera_of_Mozart">
         <owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
           <owl:Thing rdf:ID="±Nozze_di_Figaro"/>
           <owl:Thing rdf:ID="±Don_Giovanni"/>
           <owl:Thing rdf:ID="±Cosi_fan_tutte"/>
         </owl:oneOf></owl:Class>
         <!-- the intercap style cannot be used for identifiers here
         because then they could not be translated back to other notations -->
N3:    pm:Da_Ponte_opera_of_Mozart
         owl:oneOf (pm:Nozze_di_Figaro, pm:Don_Giovanni, pm:Cosi_fan_tutte).
KRF:   QNode{cType:"pm#Da_Ponte_opera_of_Mozart"
         sourceOf: Relation{rType:equal dest:
           NodeCollection{aggregation:or
             collElt: TNode{term:"pm#Le_Nozze_di_Figaro"}
             collElt: TNode{term:"pm#Don_Giovanni"}
             collElt: TNode{term:"pm#Cosi_fan_tutte"} }}}
UML:

An enumerated class. The number "3" at the upper-right corner of the class box specifies that this class has exactly three instances   (excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)



Simple Definition/Assertion Via Relations-From/To-a-Class

An object identifier may be a URL (as in RDF/XML, e.g., http://www.foo.com and http://www.bar.com/doc.html#car), an e-mail address or, within a shared KBMS for example, the composition of a source/user identifier and a "key name" within that namespace, as in wn#electric_car and pm#electric_vehicle (with wn referring to WordNet 1.7 and pm to the person identified by pmartin@dstc.edu.au). This last notation is used in WebKB-2 and will be use in the following examples. All the used identifiers exist in the KB of WebKB-2, and their related classes (e.g., subclasses) and statements are accessible via WebKB-2 interfaces or URLs (e.g., ../../bin/categSearch.cgi?categ=wn%23electric_car).

Note that a key name is also a name, and hence when an object identifier is created with an English word/expression as key name, its orthograph or case should not be altered and hence, in WebKB-2, the character '_' is used as a connector (e.g., pm#electric_vehicle, not pm#ElectricVehicle). This is important for the presentation of statements in natural language or restricted languages. Without this convention, the correct orthograph cannot be retrieved with certainty (at least in English) and the knowledge providers are expected to specify the correct orthograph using an additional name ("label" in RDF/XML) which is cumbersome and, in practice, rarely done. As shown below in the RDF/XML translations, when converting statements to languages where other conventions have been adopted, the identifiers are converted too. When referring to object identifiers which do not follow the expected conventions (e.g., the "elements" of the Dublin Core are relations but their identifiers beging by an uppercase), no orthographic change is made (e.g., dc#Creator is used in all notations).

In FCG, a statement of the form "[x, r: y]" means "x has for r y". In the KIF-based notations below, a statement of the form "(r x y)" also means "x has for r y" (this convention is unfortunately not in the KIF documentation and hence the opposite convention is used by some other people).



Domain, Range and Cardinality of Relations

In predicate logic and semantic networks, a relation is a first-order entity, that is, it is not "local" to an object but can be applied to any object provided that the class of this object complies with the relevant class specified in the signature of the relation, i.e., is identical to it, more specialized, or to ease query formulation, more general. Identifiers of relation types also have no separate namespace. For clarity purposes, the expression "relation types" is often used as a synonym to "relation classes".

Binary relations ("properties" in OWL terminology) map directly to UML associations. In OWL, the relations rdfs#domain and rdfs#range permit to specify the signature of a relation, while rdfs#domain, while owl#min_cardinality, owl#max_cardinality and owl#cardinality permit to specify its range cardinality. Stating that a relation type is instance of the the metaclass owl#functional_property or owl#inverse_functional_property respectively permits to specify a range cardinality (0..1) and a domain cardinality (0..1). To specify other domain cardinalities in OWL, inverse relations must unfortunately be introduced.

OWL Lite consider datatypes (e.g.,, numbers and strings) and objects having a class as exclusive kinds of objects. This exclusion is fortunately removed in OWL DL and OWL Full but OWL distinguishes between "object properties" and "datatype properties". Using attributes seem to be a natural way to represent "datatype properties" in UML but this implies that an attribute is just a shortcut for an association (which must be automatically derivable from the attribute by an UML system).

Below are two examples of relation definitions. pm is a constant that refers to the person that has for identifier pmartin@dstc.edu.au. "E" is for "English". "//" introduces a line comment for people only (i.e., discarded by parsers). The OWL notations below use the XML comment marks "<!-- ... -->" for such comments. They also use RDF/XML namespace shortcuts, e.g., they do not refer to owl#nothing but either to owl:Nothing or to &owl;Nothing, depending on where the identifier is used.

E:     Relations of type pm#husband are defined as both functional and 
       inverse functional relations, from an object of class pm#woman to
       an object of class pm#man.
FL:    pm#husband (0..1 pm#woman -> pm#man);                    //default representation;
FL:    pm#husband (0..1 pm#woman, 0..1 pm#man);                 //a more extended form;
FL:    pm#woman pm#husband: pm#man (pm, any->0..1, 0..1<-any);  //another one;
KOWLL: (owl#functional_property pm#husband)
       (owl#inverse_functional_property pm#husband)
       (rdfs#domain pm#husband pm#woman)  (rdfs#range pm#husband pm#man)
XOWLL: <owl:FunctionalProperty rdf:ID="±husband">
         <rdf:type    rdf:resource="&owl;InverseFunctionalProperty" />
         <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="±Woman"/>
         <rdfs:range  rdf:resource="±Man"/> </owl:FunctionalProperty>
N3:    @prefix pm: <"pm#">.  //such namespace declarations will not be repeated in the next N3 examples
       @prefix dolce: <"dolce#">.
       @prefix kif: <"http://logic.stanford.edu/kif/kif.html#">.
       @prefix rdf: <"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">.
       @prefix rdfs: <"http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/PR-rdf-schema-19990303#">.
       @prefix dc: <"http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core#">.
       @prefix daml: <"http://www.daml.org/2000/10/daml-ont#">.
       @prefix pm: <"http://www.webkb.org/kb/theKB_terms.rdf/pm#">.
       @prefix wn: <"http://www.webkb.org/kb/theKB_terms.rdf/wn#">.
       @prefix owl: <"http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features#">.
       @prefix : <#>.
       pm:husband a owl:FunctionalProperty, owl:InverseFunctionalProperty;
                  rdfs:domain pm:Woman;   rdfs:range pm:Man.
KRF:   not needed here since UML not extended here


E:     Relations of type pm#parent are from pm#animal to pm#animal. The domain
       cardinality is 0..* and the range cardinality 2..2 (in our real world).
FL:    pm#parent (0..* pm#animal, 2 pm#animal);  //0..* is optional here
FL:    pm#animal  pm#parent: pm#animal (any->2, 0..*<-any); //"0..*<-any" is optional
KIF:   (defrelation pm#parent (?x ?y) :=> (and (pm#animal ?x) (pm#animal ?y)))
       (forall ((a pm#animal)) (existsN ('?p pm#animal (pm#parent '?a ?p))))
XOWLD: <owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID="±parent">
         <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="±Animal"/>
         <rdfs:range  rdf:resource="±Animal"/> </owl:ObjectProperty>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="±Animal"/>
         <rdfs:subClassOf><owl:Restriction>
           <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="±parent"/>
           <owl:cardinality rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">2
           </owl:cardinality> </owl:Restriction> </rdfs:subClassOf> </owl:Class>
N3:    pm:parent a owl:ObjectProperty;  rdfs:domain pm:Animal;  rdfs:range pm:Animal. 
       pm:Animal rdfs:subClassOf
                   [a owl:Restriction;  owl:onProperty pm:Parent;  owl:cardinality 2].

Related simple examples in UML:


An "object property" shown as an association (excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)


Some "datatype properties" shown as attributes (excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)



InstanceOf, SubtypeOf and Subtype Partition

Instance relations can be used between an individual and a class, or between classes as in the next example.

E:     According to OWL, owl#annotation_property has for instance rdfs#label.
FL:    owl#annotation_property instance: rdfs#label;  //':' can be used instead of "instance:"
FCG:   [owl#annotation_property, rdf#type of: rdfs#label](owl);
KIF:   (dc#Creator '(owl#annotation_property rdfs#label) owl)
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(rdf#type rdfs#label owl#annotation_property) owl)
XOWLL: <rdf:Property rdf:about="&rdfs;label">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="&owl;AnnotationProperty" dc:Creator="owl"/>
       </rdf:Property>
N3:    {rdfs:label rdf:type owl:AnnotationProperty} dc:Creator "owl".

Related simple example in UML:


Example of how an instanceOf relation and a transitive relation may be represented in UML
(excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)

Here is an example for subtype relations.

E:     According to OWL, owl#datatype_property is a subclass of rdf#property.
FL:    owl#datatype_property supertype: rdf#property; //"subtype of" could also be used
FL:    owl#datatype_property < rdf#property; //'<' is a shortcut for "supertype:"
FCG:   [owl#datatype_property, rdfs#sub_class_of: rdf#property](owl);
KIF:   (dc#Creator '(forall ((?i owl#datatype_property)) (rdf#property ?i)) owl)
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(rdfs#sub_class_of owl#datatype_property rdf#property) owl)
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:about="&owl;DatatypeProperty">
         <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="&rdf;Property" dc:Creator="owl"/></owl:Class>
N3:    {owl:DatatypeProperty rdfs:subClassOf rdf:Property} dc:Creator "owl".

OWL requires the use of rdfs#sub_property_of instead of rdfs#sub_class_of for subtype relations between class of relations.


Example of the use of a class of relation (property) specializing another one
(excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)


Here is an example of open subclass partition, that is, a set of exclusive subclasses. For each notation except FL and UML, the statement of the previous example is taken into account, that is, not repeated.

E:     According to OWL Lite, owl#datatype_property and owl#object_property are
       exclusive subclasses of rdf#property.
FL:    rdf#property > { owl#datatype_property (owl)
                        owl#object_property (owl)   } (owl_lite, exclusive);
        //"{...}" refer to an AND-SET, hence here a list of exclusive subtypes
        //since '>' is a shortcut for "subtype:" and the fact that the members
        //of this set are exclusive is indicated in the context of this set
FCG:   [owl#object_property, rdfs#sub_class_of: rdf#property](owl);
       [owl#object_property, owl#disjoint_with: owl#datatype_property](owl_lite);
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(rdfs#sub_class_of owl#object_property rdf#property) owl_lite)
       (dc#Creator '(owl#disjoint_with owl#object_property owl#datatype_property)
                   owl_lite)
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:about="&owl;ObjectProperty">
         <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="&rdf;Property" dc:Creator="owl_lite"/>
         <owl:disjointWith rdf:resource="&rdf;DatatypeProperty" dc:Creator="owl_lite"/>
       </owl:Class>
N3:    {owl:ObjectProperty rdfs:subClassOf rdf:Property} dc:Creator "owl_lite".
       {owl:ObjectProperty owl:disjointWith rdf:DatatypeProperty} dc:Creator "owl_lite".


Here is the same example but with a closed (i.e., complete) subclass partition, i.e., a set of exclusive subclasses that covers all the possible instances of the source class. (Note: the exclusion between owl#datatype_property and owl#object_property exists in OWL Lite but not anymore in OWL DL/Full). For each notation except FL and UML, the statements of the two previous examples are taken into account.

E:     According to OWL Lite, owl#datatype_property and owl#object_property form
       a complete subclass partition of rdf#property.
FL:    rdf#property > {( owl#datatype_property (owl_lite)
                         owl#object_property   (owl_lite) )} (owl_lite, exclusive);
        //"{(...)}" refer to a complete AND-SET, hence here a complete "subtype partition"
FCG:   [rdf#property, owl#union_of: {owl#datatype_property,owl#object_property}(exclusive)
       ](owl_lite);
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(owl#union_of rdf#property 
                          (listof owl#datatype_property owl#object_property)
                    ) owl_lite)
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:about="&owl;Property"> 
          <owl:unionOf rdf:parseType="Collection" dc:Creator="owl_lite" > 
             <owl:Class rdf:about="&owl;ObjectProperty"/> 
             <owl:Class rdf:about="&owl;DatatypeProperty"/>
          </owl:unionOf> 
       </owl:Class> 
       <owl:Class rdf:about="&owl;ObjectProperty"> 
          <owl:disjointWith rdf:resource="&owl;DatatypeProperty" dc:Creator="owl_lite"/>
       </owl:Class>
N3:    {owl:Property owl:unionOf owl:ObjectProperty,owl:DatatypeProperty} dc:Creator "owl_lite".
       {owl:ObjectProperty owl:disjointWith owl:DatatypeProperty} dc:Creator "owl_lite".



Non-binary relations

FL, FCG and KIF accept N-ary relations. One way to translate a non-binary relation type into OWL is to convert it into a regular class and introduce a relation for each argument.

FL:    pm#ternary_relation (owl#thing,owl#thing,owl#thing);
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:ID="±TernaryRelation">
         <rdf:Property rdf:ID="±ternaryRelationArg1">
           <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="&owl;thing"/> </rdf:Property>
         <rdf:Property rdf:ID="±ternaryRelationArg2">
           <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="&owl;thing"/> </rdf:Property>
         <rdf:Property rdf:ID="±ternaryRelationArg3">
           <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="&owl;thing"/> </rdf:Property>
       </owl:Class>
N3:    pm:TernaryRelation a owl:Class;
                          pm:ternaryRelationArg1 owl:thing;
                          pm:ternaryRelationArg2 owl:thing;
                          pm:ternaryRelationArg3 owl:thing.



Synthesis: a typical example

FL:    pm#thing__something (^any object is instance of this class^) 29/11/1999
         name:  "chose" (kr, language: wn#French),  instance of:  owl#class,
         >  {(pm#situation pm#entity)}(exclusive)  pm#thing_playing_some_role,
         =  owl#thing suo#entity;
KOWLL: (owl#class pm#thing)
         (rdfs#label pm#thing "something") //the binary relation rdfs#label
         (dc#Creator '(xml#lang '(rdfs#label pm#thing "chose") fr) kr)
         (dc#Creator pm#thing pmartin@dstc.edu.au) 
         (dc#Date pm#thing "29/11/1999")
         (rdfs#comment pm#thing "any object is instance of this class")
         (owl#union_of pm#thing (listof pm#situation pm#entity))
         (owl#disjointWith pm#entity pm#situation)
         (rdfs#subClassOf pm#entity pm#thing)
         (rdfs#subClassOf pm#situation pm#thing)
         (rdfs#subClassOf pm#thing_playing_some_role pm#thing)
         (owl#sameClassAs pm#thing owl#thing)    (owl#sameClassAs pm#thing suo#entity)
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:ID="±Thing">
         <rdfs:label>thing</rdfs:label> <rdfs:label>something</rdfs:label>
         <rdfs:label xml:lang="fr" dc:Creator="kerry@dstc.edu.au">chose</rdfs:label>
         <dc:Creator>pmartin@dstc.edu.au</dc:Creator>
         <dc:Date>29/11/1999</dc:Date>
         <rdfs:comment>any object is instance of this class</rdfs:comment>
         <owl:unionOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
           <owl:Class rdf:ID="±Entity"/>
           <owl:Class rdf:ID="±Situation"/> </owl:unionOf>
         <owl#sameClassAs rdf:resource="&owl;Thing"/>
         <owl#sameClassAs rdf:resource="&suo;Entity"/>
       </owl:Class>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="±Entity">
         <owl:disjointWith rdf:about="±Situation"/> </owl:Class>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="±ThingPlayingSomeRole">
         <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:about="±Thing"/> </owl:Class>
N3:    pm:Thing a owl:Class;
          rdfs:label "thing", "something";  dc:Creator pmartin@dstc.edu.au;
          dc:Date "29/11/1999";  rdfs:comment "any object is instance of this class";
          owl:unionOf (pm:Entity  pm:Situation);  owl:sameClass owl:Thing, suo:Entity.
       {{pm:Thing rdfs:label "chose"} xml:lang "fr"} dc:Creator "kerry@dstc.edu.au".
       pm:Entity a owl:Class;  owl:disjointWith pm:Situation.
       pm:ThingPlayingSomeRole a owl:Class;  rdfs:subClassOf pm:Thing.



Relations-From/To-a-Class Used As Shortcuts

Lexical ontologies such as WordNet often have additional relations-from/to-a-class that are of a different nature than the above cited ones: they are simply shortcuts for universally quantified assertions. Examples of such relations are memberOf, substanceOf, partOf, locationOf and urlOf.

In FL, the relation "partOf" refers to the spatial/physical "partOf" (i.e., "portionOf" or "componentOf") when spatial entities are connected, and "subprocessOf" when processes are connected. The relation "part" refers to "part", the inverse of "partOf". The example also shows how cardinality and complete/open partitions for transitive relations may be specified. The relation type pm#disjoint_part is defined in the KIF version and re-used in the OWL version.

E:     Any human body has at most 2 arms. Any arm belongs to at most 1 body.
FL:    pm#human_body part: wn#arm (any->0..2, 0..1<-any);
KIF:   (forall ((?b pm#human_body)) (atMostN 2 '?a wn#arm (pm#part ?b '?a)))
       (forall ((?a wn#arm)) (atMostN 1 '?b pm#human_body (pm#part '?b ?a)))
XOWLD: <rdf:Property rdf:ID="ArmPart"><rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="±part"/>
         <owl:inverseOf rdf:ID="ArmPartOf"/>
         <rdfs:range rdf:resource="&wn;Arm"/> </rdf:Property>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="±HumanBody"><rdfs:subClassOf>
         <owl:Restriction><owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#ArmPart"/>
           <owl:maxCardinality rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">2
           </owl:maxCardinality></owl:Restriction> </rdfs:subClassOf></owl:Class>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="&wn;Arm"><rdfs:subClassOf>
         <owl:Restriction><owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#ArmPartOf"/>
           <owl:maxCardinality rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">1
           </owl:maxCardinality></owl:Restriction> </rdfs:subClassOf></owl:Class>
N3:    :ArmPart a rdf:Property;             rdfs:subPropertyOf pm:part;
                owl:inverseOf :ArmPartOf;   rdfs:range wn:Arm.
       pm:HumanBody rdfs:subClassOf
          [a owl:Restriction;  owl:onProperty ArmPart;  owl:cardinality 2]. 
       wn:Arm rdfs:subClassOf
          [a owl:Restriction;  owl:onProperty ArmPartOf;  owl:cardinality 1].

Here is a KIF definition of atMostN:

(defrelation atMostN (?num ?var ?type ?predicate) :=
  (exists ((?s set)(?n)) (and (size ?s ?n) (=< ?n ?num)
    (truth ^(forall (,?var) (=> (member ,?var ,?s)
                                (and (,?type ,?var) ,?predicate)))))))



Lambda Abstractions, Qualitative Valuation

A lambda abstraction is an on-the-fly (i.e., in the middle of a statement, instead of using a class name) complete definition of an anonymous class (i.e., unnamed and therefore not stored in the ontology). Its use is very handy with universal quantifiers (or similar extended quantifiers) as the following example shows. The example also shows that in KIF and OWL, a class named "healthy_bird" had to be explicitely introduced instead of being kept anonymous. (However, OWL permits some restricted kinds of lambda-abstractions via the use of owl#restriction).

The example also illustrates another kind of shortcut in FE and FCG: the use of the keyword "good" (which is one of the few predefined keywords for qualitative valuation in FE and FCG) instead of the use of a "measure" relation.

E:     At least 93% of healthy birds fly.
FE:    At least 93% of [bird experiencer of a good health] are agent of a flight.
FCG:   [at least 93% of (bird,experiencer of:a good health), agent of: a flight]
KIF:   (defobject healthy_bird (?b) :=
         (exists ((?h health))
           (and (bird ?b) (experiencer ?h ?b) (measure ?h good))))
       (forAtLeastNpercent 93 '?x healthy_bird
         (exists ((?f flight)) (agent ?f '?x)))
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:ID="GoodHealth">
         <owl:intersectionOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
            <owl:Class rdf:about="#Health"/>
            <owl:Restriction><owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#measure"/>
              <owl:hasValue rdf:resource="#Good"/></owl:Restriction>
         </owl:intersectionOf></owl:Class>
       <owl:Class rdf:ID="HealthyBird">
         <owl:equivalentClass><owl:Restriction>
           <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#experiencerOf"/>
           <owl:allValuesFrom rdf:resource="#GoodHealth"/></owl:Restriction>
         </owl:equivalentClass></owl:Class>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="#HealthyBird" quantifier="at least 93%">
         <agentOf><Flight/></agentOf></owl:Class>
N3:    :GoodHealth owl:intersectionf :Health,
          [a owl:Restriction;  owl:onProperty :measure;  owl:hasValue :Good]. 
       :HealthyBird owl:equivalentClass
          [a owl:Restriction;  owl:onProperty :exprerienceOf;  owl:allValuesFrom :GoodHealth]. 
       {:HealthyBird :agentOf :Flight} :quantifier "at least 93%".
KRF:   LNode { embeddedNode1: QNode {cType:bird
                    quantifier: Quantifier{kind:percentage num:"93"}
                    sourceOf: isReversed Relation {rType:experiencer
                                dest: QNode {cType: health  qualifier:good}}}
               sourceOf: Relation {rType:agent dest: QNode {cType: flight}} }



6. Numerical Quantification

Besides the classic quantifiers "there exists" and "for any", extended quantifiers such as "at least 2", "60%" or "most" are also very useful. As shown below, there is no problem to define them in KIF.
In OWL, as shown in the previous example, cardinalities may sometimes be used to represent simple numerical quantifiers (this only works within class definitions; it would not work for example to represent "Tom has only 3 legs"). For other cases, there are two solutions: (i) using an approach similar to the one used for the KIF statements, which would involve the use of owl#one_of relations (to define/get a list for the instances of a class), kif#length relations (to define/get the number of elements in a list), and mutiplication and comparison relations, or (ii) define a class attribute "quantifier". Both approaches are ad-hoc, may be difficult to use for specifying the scope of quantifiers in complex statements, and no OWL inference engine will be able to use them since they involve elements outside OWL. Here, the latter approach is adopted because it is much simpler to use by people and (adapted) inference engines.
In FCG and FE, the quantifier "most" means "at least 60%". A similar equivalence for OWL statements could be adopted by the W3C.

The following example also shows how "physical possibility" may be represented using the keyword "can" in FE and FCG, or contexts in KIF and OWL. However, (i) unless identifiers for "modality" and "physical_possibility" are standardized, no inference engine will use them, (ii) specifying a context over a class definition may not be accepted or understood by OWL inference engines, (iii) specifying the scope of contexts in OWL may be problematic for complex statements.

E:     At least 85% of birds are able to fly.
FE:    At least 85% of bird can be agent of a flight.
FCG:   [at least 85% of bird, can be agent of: a flight]
KIF:   (forAtLeastNpercent 85 '?x bird
         (exists ((?f flight)) (modality '(agent ?f ,?x) physical_possibility)))
XOWLL: <rdf:Property rdf:ID="quantifier">
         <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="&owl;Class"/>
         <rdfs:range rdf:resource="&rdfs;Literal"/> </rdf:Property>
       <owl:Class rdf:about="#Bird" rdf:bagID="b" quantifier="at least 85%">
         <agentOf><Flight/></agentOf></owl:Class>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#b">
         <modality rdf#resource="#PhysicalPossibility"/> </rdf:Description>
N3:    :quantifier a rdf:Property;  rdfs:domain owl:Class;  rdfs:range  rdfs:Literal.
       :Bird rdf:bagID :b;  quantifier "at least 85%".
       @forAll :b . { {:b :agentOf :Flight} :modality :PhysicalPossibility }.
KRF:   QNode {cType:bird quantifier:Quantifier{kind:percentage num:"85"}
              sourceOf: Relation {rType:agent  modality:"can"
                  dest: QNode {cType: flight} }}

Introduced constructs:

<rdf:Property rdf:ID="quantifier">
  <!-- domain: either a class or a description that uses aboutEach -->
  <rdfs:range rdf:resource="&rdfs;Literal"/> </rdf:Property>

(defrelation forAtLeastNpercent (?n ?var ?type ?predicate) :=
  (exists ((?s set))
    (and (truth ^(forall (,?var) (=> (member ,?var ,?s) (,?type ,?var)))
         (>= (numMembersSuchThat ,?s ,?predicate) (/ (* (size ,?s) ?n) 100)))))

  (define-function numMembersSuchThat (?set ?p) :-> ?num :=
    (if (and (set ?set) (predicate ?p)) (numElemsSuchThat (listOf ?set) ?p)))

  (define-function numElemsSuchThat (?list ?p) :-> ?num :=
    (cond ((null ?list) 0)
          ((list ?list) (if ?p (1+ (numElemsSuchThat (rest ?list) ?p))))))


The above OWL representation uses agentOf, the relation type inverse of agent. The RDF/XML syntax is so poor that it requires the definition of a new type instead of permitting the use of some syntactic sugar such as a keyword of. It is un-natural and time-consuming for the user, and also imposes additional work to the OWL parser or inference engine.



7. Alternatives and Isolated Collections

Td be written.



8. Negation, Difference, Exclusion, Complement, Reverse

Two forms of negation have been presented above: one involving a different_from relation (differentFrom in OWL, /= in KIF), and one involving the negation of a sentence ("not" in KIF). This last form is more difficult to exploit by inference engines and leaves room for ambiguity. For example, "Tom does not own a blue car" may mean that "Tom has a car but not blue" or that "Tom does not have a car". Thus, it is better to use the first form, or break sentences into smaller blocks connected by coreference variables in order to reduce or avoid ambiguities.
Here is a variant of the first form: negation on types. In the OWL translation, it is unclear if a owl#different_from relation is sufficient or if a owl#complement_of relation is required (in which case OWL DL would be necessary).

E:     Tom owns something that is not a car.
FE:    Tom is owner of a !car.
FCG:   [Tom, owner of: a !car]
KIF:   (exists (?type ?x) (and (owner ?x Tom) (holds ?type ?x) (/= ?type car)))
XOWLL: <owl:Thing><owner><owl:Thing rdf:about="#Tom"/></owner>
                  <rdf:type><owl:Class><owl:differentFrom rdf:resource="#car"/>
                            </owl:Class> </rdf:type> </owl:Thing>
N3:    [a [a owl:Class;   owl:differentFrom :Car];  :owner :Tom].
KRF:   TNode {term:Tom 
         sourceOf: isReversed Relation{rType:owner dest:
           isNegatedType QNode{cType:car}}}

Exclusion between objects (and hence, some forms of negation between classes, instances or statements) may also be represented via XOR-collections or OR-collections.
RDF (and hence OWL) proposes an alt collection to store alternatives but unfortunately does not specify if this "or" is inclusive or exclusive. Although specializing alt by or_bag and xor_set seems a good idea (even if RDF engines are unlikely to take advantage of this distinction), the current RDF/XML grammar only permits to define members (using rdf#li relations) to collections of type Bag, Alt and Seq and not specializations of these types! Furthermore, it is unclear how collections on types are interpreted in RDF (distributive, collective or cumulative interpretation). Hence, it is better to use relations such as owl#union_of, owl#one_of, owl#disjoint_with, owl#complement_of or owl#differentFrom). Here is an example of OR-collection between instances. (Note: red, yellow and orange are not instance but subtype of color, and have many subtypes, e.g., crimson, dark_red and chrome_red. The instances of these colors are the actual occurrences of colors that physical objects have.)

E:     Tom's car is red, yellow or orange.
FE:    Tom is owner of a car that has for color OR{a red, a yellow, an orange}.
FCG:   [Tom, owner of: (a car, color: OR{a red, a yellow, an orange})]
KIF:   (exists ((?x car) ?c)
         (and (owner ?x Tom) (color ?x ?c) (or (red ?c)(yellow ?c)(orange ?c))))
XOWLD: <Car><owner><owl:Thing rdf:about="#Tom"/></owner>
         <color><owl:Thing>
                  <rdf:type><owl:Class><owl:unionOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
                                         <Red/><Yellow/><Orange/></owl:unionOf>
                  </rdf:type></owl:Thing></color></Car>
N3:    [a :Car;  :owner :Tom;
                 :color [a [owl:unionOf (:Red :Yellow :Orange)] ].
KRF:   TNode {term:Tom 
         sourceOf:isReversed Relation{rType:owner dest:
           QNode{cType:car sourceOf: Relation{rType:color dest:
             NodeCollection{aggregation:or collElt:QNode{cType:red}
               collElt:QNode{cType:yellow} collElt:QNode{cType:orange}}}}}}

It should be noted that for this example, using a type such as warm_color would have been better than using an OR-collection of red, yellow and orange (and this would have eased inferencing). More generally, negation can be represented in numerous ways and these representations are often difficult for an inference engine to compare and hence fully exploit. Both for knowledge exchange with frame-based systems and for knowledge inferencing, different_from relations between instances or types should be prefered to other forms of negations.



Different_from, Exclusion, Complement, Reverse

In the WebKB-2 model and KRM, objects are assumed to be different when they are not connected by identity relations. This convention eases both knowledge entering, storage and inferencing. Because of it, no notation has been given for different-from relations in FL and KRF. In OWL, the "unique name" assumption is left as an inference engine choice (which in our opinion is not a good decision for knowledge representation and sharing purposes) and hence owl#differentFrom is provided by OWL Lite.

E:     According to pm, pm#state is different from dolce#state.
FCG:   [pm#state, != dolce#state](pm);
KIF:   (dc#Creator '(/= pm#state dolce#state) pm)
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(owl#differentFrom pm#state dolce#state) pm)
XOWLL: <owl:Class rdf:about="±State">
         <owl:differentFrom rdf:resource="&dolce;State" dc:Creator="pmartin@dstc.edu.au"/>
       </owl:Class>
N3:    {pm:State owl:differentFrom dolce:State} dc:creator "pmartin@dstc.edu.au".


Exclusion relations are the "relations-from/to-a-class" most commonly used in ontologies after subtypeOf and instanceOf relations. They are often given via the subtype partitions (presented with subtypeOf). An exclusion relation states that its source and destination cannot have common subtypes nor instances.

E:     According to dolce, dolce#state and dolce#process are exclusive.
FL:    dolce#state  exclusion: dolce#process; //the creator of the relation does not need to
        //be specified because it is identical to the creator of the source object;
        //this convention will also be used for OWL translations
FL:    dolce#state ! dolce#process;  //'!' is an abbreviation for "exclusion:"
FCG:   [dolce#state, owl#disjoint_with: dolce#process](dolce);
KOWLD: (dc#Creator '(owl#disjoint_with dolce#state dolce#process) dolce)
XOWLD: <owl:Class rdf:about="&dolce;State">
         <owl:disjointWith rdf:resource="&dolce;Process" dc:Creator="dolce"/></owl:Class>
N3:    {dolce:State owl:disjointWith dolce:Process} dc:creator "dolce".

Related simple example in UML:


Example of how exclusive classes may be represented in UML
(excerpt from Schreiber's OWL translation in UML)


The destination class of a complementOf relation covers all the instances that are not covered by the source class (and conversely). Given this meaning, apart from connecting the classes owl#thing and owl#nothing, one may wonder which other named classes this relation can connect. However, in OWL, this relation is useful within definitions to refer to the complement of a class and then specialize it or intersect it with another class.


Inverse relations can only be set between relation typees.

E:     According to pm, pm#subtype is inverse of pm#supertype.
FL:    pm#subtype  inverse: pm#supertype;  //'-' can be used instead of "inverse:"
FCG:   [pm#subtype, owl#inverse_of: pm#supertype](pm);
KIF:   (dc#Creator '(<=> (pm#subtype ?x ?y) (pm#supertype ?y ?x)) owl)
KOWLL: (dc#Creator '(owl#inverse_of pm#subtype pm#supertype) pm)
XOWLL: <rdf:Property rdf:ID="±subtype">
         <owl:inverseOf rdf:resource="±supertype" dc:Creator="pmartin@dstc.edu.au"/>
       </rdf:Property>
N3:    pm:subtype a rdf:Property.
       {pm:subtype  owl:inverseOf pm:supertype} dc:Creator "pmartin@dstc.edu.au".


OWL Lite also proposes the meta-classes owl#symmetric_property and owl#transitive_property, to type classes of relations that are symmetric or transitive. However, only in OWL Full can these meta-classes be used to type classes of relations that can have data types (integer, string, ...) as destinations. The meta-classes owl#symmetric_property and owl#transitive_property could be re-used in UML (see next example).



9. Collections and Quantifier Precedence

Collections have already been introduced in the previous section and via examples using numerical quantifiers. This section uses "AND collections" and shows how various interpretations of the English sentence "9 judges have approved 50 laws" (and some variations of it) can be interpreted. This study of how relations between members of two simple collections can be represented illustrates the importance of specifying how a collection must be interpreted, and shows how to handle complex cases of quantifier precedence (between numerical, existential and universal quantifiers).

The sentence "9 judges have approved 50 laws" is ambiguous. The 9 judges may have individually or collectively approved 50 laws (the same 50 or not), and "collectively" may have two meanings: a participation to a "unique" approval act or the approval of "most" of the laws (or a combination of both as ilustrated in the last example of this section). This study shows that this leads to at least 32 different logical interpretations. In this document, "judges approving together/collectively" means that "there exists a (unique) approval and each of the judges is agent of that approval". Similarly, "laws collectively approved" means that "there exists an approval and each of the laws are object of that approval". This interpretation of "collectiveness" was used in [Sowa, 1992] and, in Conceptual Graph terminology, it implies that the approval must be represented by a "concept node", not by a "relation node" (this result was however not explicited by Sowa). In [Sowa, 1992], any collection in a concept node of a conceptual graph can be specified as having a distributive interpretation (each member of the collection individually participates to the relations associated to the node), a collective interpretation (the members collectively participate to the relations associated to the node), a defaut interpretation (an unspecified mix of collective and distributive interpretation) or a cumulative interpretation (the relations are about the collection itself).

OWL (or more exactly RDF) introduces some notion of distributive interpretation via the keyword aboutEach but it is not clear if this is the default interpretation, the direct distributive interpretation or the general distributive interpretation (the distinction between the last two will be explained below). Without aboutEach, the relations are about the collection itself (cumulative interpretation). However, in their examples, the RDF authors also represent the collective interpretation via direct relations to the bag (e.g., see Section 3.5 of RDFMS). For the OWL translations, a relation type interpretation, a class set and a relation type size have been introduced. The type set is declared as a subtype of rdf#bag; this permits the use of rdf#about_each.

The first example keeps the ambiguity of the above cited sentence (both collections have the default interpretation). The `s' at the end of judges and laws in the FE and FCG representations are supposed to be automatically removed (WebKB-2 does this when a numerical or universal quantifier is involved). In this section, FE and KRF translations are only given in this first example, but a Predicate Logic (PL) translation is added using the symbols "∀" for the universal quantifier, "∃" for the existential quantifier, "∈" for membership to a set, and "^" for "and".

E:     9 judges have (each/together) approved 50 laws.
FE:    9 judges are agent of an approval with object 50 laws.
FCG:   [9 judges, agent of: (an approval, object: 50 laws)]
KIF:   (forAllN 9 '?j judge (forAllN 50 '?l law
         (exists ((?a approval)) (and (agent ?a '?j) (object ?a '?l)))))
PL:    ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^ ∀j∈js  ∃ls set(ls)^size(ls,50) ^ ∀l∈ls
         ∃a approval(a) ^ agent(a,j) ^ object(a,l)
XOWLD: <!-- 1st version -->
       <rdf:Property rdf:ID="objectLaw">
         <rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="#object"/>
         <rdfs:range rdf:resource="#Law"/> </rdf:Property>
       <owl:Class rdf:ID="ApprovalOf50laws">
         <owl:intersectionOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
           <Approval/>
           <owl:Restriction>
             <owl:cardinality rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">50
             </owl:cardinality>
             <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#objectLaw"/></owl:Restriction>
         </owl:intersectionOf></owl:Class>
       <Set rdf:ID="Judges"><size>9</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="default">
         <agentOf><ApprovalOf50laws/></agentOf></rdf:Description>

  <!-- The next version is shorter but highly tentative. It mostly relies on the
       special meaning of the relation "interpretation". RDF does not specify
       what embedded uses of aboutEach mean. More generally and mainly because
       it is based on triples, RDF has no clear notion of quantifier/statement
       scopes and insufficient means to specify them. -->
       <Set rdf:ID="Laws"/>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="separately">
          <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Law"/></rdf:Description>
       <Set rdf:ID="Judges"><size>9</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
          <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="default">
          <agentOf><Approval><object> 
            <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="default">
              <size>50</size> 
           </rdf:Description></object></Approval></agentOf></rdf:Description> -->
  <!-- OWL may permit to define Judges as a set without introducing
          the class Set, in the following way:
            <owl:AllDifferent><owl:distinctMembers><rdf:Bag rdf:ID="Judges"/>
                              </owl:distinctMembers></owl:AllDifferent> -->
N3:    :objectLaw a rdf:Property;  rdfs:subPropertyOf :object;  rdfs:range :Law.
       :ApprovalOf50laws a owl:Class; 
                         owl:intersectionOf :Approval,
                             [a owl:Restriction; owl:onProperty :objectLaw; owl:cardinality 50].
       :Judges a Set;  size 9.
       @forAll :j . { :j a :Judge;  is pm:member of :Judges } => { [a :ApprovalOf50laws] :agent :j }.
KRF:   QNode{cType:judge quantifier:Quantifier{num:"9"}
         sourceOf:isReversed Relation{rType:agent dest:
           QNode{cType:approval sourceOf: Relation{rType:object dest:
             QNode{cType:judge quantifier:Quantifier{num:"50"}}}}}}

Introduced constructs:

<rdf:Property rdf:ID="interpretation"/>
  <rdfs:range rdf:resource="&rdfs;Literal"/>
</rdf:Property>

(defrelation forAllN (?num ?var ?type ?predicate) :=
  (exists ((?s set)) (and (size ?s ?num)
    (truth ^(forall (,?var) (=> (member ,?var ,?s)
                                (and (,?type ,?var) ,?predicate)))))))
//forAllN is nearly identical to the above defined atMostN: only the
//constraint on the size of the set differs



In FE and FCG, the order and scope of quantifiers is specified by their order and the structure of the graphs. The next example shows a simple inversion of the quantifier order.

E:     50 laws have been approved by 9 judges (each/together).
FCG:   [50 laws, object of: (an approval, agent: 9 judges)]
KIF:   (forAllN 50 '?l law (forAllN 9 '?j judge
         (exists ((?a approval)) (and (agent ?a '?j) (object ?a '?l)))))
PL:    ∃ls set(ls) ^ size(ls,50) ^ ∀l∈ls  ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^ ∀j∈js
         ∃a approval(a) ^ agent(a,j) ^ object(a,l)
XOWLD: <!-- 1st version -->
       <rdf:Property rdf:ID="agentJudge">
         <rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="#agent"/>
         <rdfs:range rdf:resource="#Judge"/> </rdf:Property>
       <owl:Class rdf:ID="ApprovalBy9Judges">
         <owl:intersectionOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
           <Approval/>
           <owl:Restriction>
             <owl:cardinality rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">9
             </owl:cardinality>
             <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#agentJudge"/></owl:Restriction>
         </owl:intersectionOf></owl:Class>
       <Set rdf:ID="Laws"><size>50</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Law"/></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="default">
         <objectOf><ApprovalBy9Judges/></objectOf></rdf:Description>
N3:    :agentJudge a rdf:Property;  rdfs:subPropertyOf :object;  rdfs:range :Judge.
       :ApprovalBy9Judges a owl:Class; 
                         owl:intersectionOf :Approval,
                             [a owl:Restriction; owl:onProperty :agentJudge; owl:cardinality 9].
       :Laws a Set;  size 50.
       @forAll :l . { :l a :Law;  is pm:member of :Laws } => {[a :ApprovalBy9judges] :object :l}.



In FE and FCG, the collective interpretation is specified via the keywords together, group of, set of, bag of, list of, sequence of or alternatives (the first three are synonyms; in this document, set is most often used).

If we take the two previous examples and gradually introduce the collective interpretation for the collections (i.e., the sharing of the approvals by the judges/laws, e.g., in the KIF translations, by gradually moving "(exists ((?a approval)" to the left), we obtain five different logical interpretations (instead of six because when both collections are collectively interpreted, the inversion of quantifier order does not change the meaning). Below are three of these combinations (the other two are: "A group of 50 laws has been approved by 9 judges" and "A group of 9 judges has approved 50 laws").

E:     9 judges have (each/together) approved a group of 50 laws.
FCG:   [9 judges, agent of: (an approval, object:  50 laws together)]
KIF:   (forAllN 9 '?j judge (exists ((?a approval) (?ls set))
         (forAllIn ?ls 50 '?l law (and (agent ?a '?j) (object ?a '?l)))))
PL:    ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^ ∀j ∈js  ∃a approval(a) ^
         ∃ls set(ls)^size(ls,50) ^ ∀l∈ls  agent(a,j) ^ object(a,l)
XOWLD: <owl:Class rdf:ID="ApprovalOf50laws">
         <owl:intersectionOf rdf:parseType="Collection" interpretation="collective">
           <Approval/>
           <owl:Restriction>
             <owl:cardinality rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">50
             </owl:cardinality>
             <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#objectLaw"/></owl:Restriction>
         </owl:intersectionOf></owl:Class>
       <Set rdf:ID="Judges"><size>9</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="default">
         <agentOf><ApprovalOf50laws/></agentOf></rdf:Description>
N3:    :Judges a Set; size 9.
       @forAll :j.  { :j a :Judge; is pm:member of :Judges }
          => { @exist :a.  {:a a :approval.    :Laws at set; size 50}
                 => { @forAll :l.  { :l a :Law; is pm:member of :Laws}
                        => {:a :agent :j; :object :l}
                    } }
E:     50 laws have been approved by a group of 9 judges.
FCG:   [50 laws, object of: (an approval, agent: 9 judges together)]
KIF:   (forAllN 50 '?l law (exists ((?a approval) (?js set))
         (forAllIn ?js 9 '?j judge (and (agent ?a '?j) (object ?a '?l)))))
PL:    ∃ls set(ls)^size(ls,50) ^ ∀l ∈ls  ∃a approval(a) ^
         ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^ ∀j∈js  agent(a,j) ^ object(a,l)
XOWLD: <Set rdf:ID="Judges"/>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/></rdf:Description>
       <Set rdf:ID="Laws"><size>50</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="separately">
          <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Law"/></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="default">
         <objectOf><Approval><agent>
           <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="collective">
              <size>9</size>
           </rdf:Description></agent></Approval></objectOf></rdf:Description>
N3:    :Laws a Set; size 50.
       @forAll :l.  { :l a :Law; is pm:member of :Laws }
          => { @exist :a.  @exist :Judges. {:a a :approval}
                 => { @forAll :j.  { :j a :Judge; is pm:member of :Judges.  :Judges a Set; size 9. }
                        => {:a :agent :j; :object :l}
                    } }
E:     A group of 9 judges has approved a group of 50 laws.
FCG:   [9 judges together, agent of:(an approval,object: 50 laws together)]
 or:   [a set of 50 laws, object of:(an approval,agent:a set of 9 judges)]
 or:   [an approval, agent: a set of 9 judges, object: a set of 50 laws]
KIF:   (exists ((?a approval) (?js set) (?ls set))
         (forAllIn ?js 9 '?j judge (forAllIn ?ls 50 '?l law
           (and (agent ?a '?j) (object ?a '?l)))))
PL:    ∃a approval(a) ^ ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^
         ∃ls set(ls)^size(ls,50) ^  ∀j∈js ∀l∈ls agent(a,j) ^ object(a,l)
XOWLD: <Set rdf:ID="Judges"><size>9</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/></rdf:Description>
       <Set rdf:ID="Laws"><size>50</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="separately">
          <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Law"/></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="collective">
         <agentOf><Approval><object>
           <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="collective"/>
                            </object></Approval></agentOf></rdf:Description>
N3:    :Judges a Set; size 9.  :Laws a Set; size 50.
       @exist :a. {:a a :approval}
         => { @forAll :j.  @forAll :l.  { :j a :Judge; is pm:member of :Judges}
              => {:a :agent :j; :object :l.   :l a :Law; is pm:member of :Laws}  }

Here is a definition for the "quantifier" forAllIn.
(defrelation forAllIn (?s ?num ?var ?type ?predicate) :=
  (and (size ?s ?num)
       (truth ^(forall (,?var) (=> (member ,?var ,?s)
                                   (and (,?type ,?var) ,?predicate))))))



In [Sowa, 1992], the distributive interpretation (i.e., where each member of the collection individually participates to the relations associated to the collection) specifies that each member is connected to different objects, directly (i.e., via 1 relation) or indirectly (i.e., 2 or more relations within the statement), unless otherwise specified. For better precision, FE and FCG distinguishes the directly distributive interpretation (which can be specified via the keyword "each") from Sowa's general distributive interpretation (which can be specified via the keyword "separately"). If the directly distributive interpretation is introduced into the previous seven combinations, nine different logical interpretations are obtained. A few more are obtained when the general distributive interpretation is introduced; below are are two of them (in the KIF (resp. PL) translations, replacing the first exists1For (resp. ∃!!) by exists (resp. ∃) leads to the direct distributive interpretation).

E:     9 judges have separately approved 50 laws (that's 450 approvals of law)
FCG:   [separately 9 judges, agent of: (an approval, object: 50 laws)]
KIF:   (forAllN 9 '?j judge (exists1For '?j '?ls set (forAllIn '?ls 50 '?l law
         (exists1For '?j '?a approval (and (agent '?a '?j) (object '?a '?l))))))
PL:    ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^ ∀j∈js   ∃!!ls set(ls)^size(ls,50) ^
         ∀l∈ls  ∃!!a approval(a) ^ agent(a,j) ^ object(a,l)

XOWLD: <Set rdf:ID="Laws"/>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="separately">
          <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Law"/></rdf:Description>
       <Set rdf:ID="Judges"><size>9</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/>
         <agentOf><Approval><object>
           <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="default">
              <size>50</size>
           </rdf:Description></object></Approval></agentOf></rdf:Description>
N3:    :Judges a Set; size 9.
       @forAll :j.  { :j a :Judge; is pm:member of :Judges }
           => { :Laws a Set; size 50.
                @forAll :l.  { :l a :Law; is pm:member of :Laws}
                  => { @exist :a. {:a a :approval} => {:a :agent :j; :object :l}
                       {:a :agent ?j; :object :l} => {?j = :j}
                       {:a :agent :j; :object ?l} => {?l = :l}
                     } }
E:    9 judges have separately approved a group of 50 laws (that's 450 approvals of law)
FCG:  [separately 9 judges, agent of: (an approval, object: a set of 50 laws)]
KIF:  (forAllN 9 '?j judge (exists1For '?j '?ls set (exists1For '?j '?a approval
        (forAllIn '?ls 50 '?l law (and (agent '?a '?j) (object '?a '?l))))))
PL:   ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^ ∀j∈js   ∃!!ls set(ls)^size(ls,50) ^
        ∃!!a approval(a)  ∀l∈ls  agent(a,j)^ object(a,l)
XOWLD: <Set rdf:ID="Laws"/>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="separately">
          <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Law"/></rdf:Description>
       <Set rdf:ID="Judges"><size>9</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/>
         <agentOf><Approval><object>
           <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="collective">
              <size>50</size>
           </rdf:Description></object></Approval></agentOf></rdf:Description>
N3:    :Judges a Set; size 9.
       @forAll :j.  { :j a :Judge; is pm:member of :Judges }
           => { :Laws a Set; size 50.  @exist :a.
                @forAll :l.  { :l a :Law; is pm:member of :Laws}
                  => {  {:a a :approval; :agent :j; :object :l}
                        {:a :agent ?j; :object :l} => {?j = :j}
                        {:a :agent :j; :object ?l} => {?l = :l}
                     }
              } 

Below is a KIF definition of exists1For. This quantifier permits us to specify that the judges are agent of different approvals of different laws (first example) or groups of laws (second example).
(defrelation exists1For (?var1 ?var2 ?type ?predicate) :=
  (truth ^(exists (,?var2)
    (and (,?type ,?var2)  (,?predicate ,?var1 ,?var2)
         (forall (?x) (=> (,?predicate ,?var1 ?x) (= ,?var2 ?x)))
         (forall (?y) (=> (,?predicate ?y ,?var2) (= ,?var1 ?y)))))))



Finally, "most" can also be introduced as an interpretation of collectiveness in each of the previous (7+9=16) combinations (hence, 16 logical interpretations again). Here is one of them.

E:     A group of 50 laws has been approved by most in a group of 9 judges.
FCG:   [a group of 9 judges, agent of:
         (an approval, object: most in a group of 50 laws)]
FCG:   [most in a group of 50 laws, object of:
         (an approval, agent: a group of 9 judges)]
KIF:   (exists ((?a approval) (?js set) (?ls set))
         (forAllIn ?js 9 '?j judge (forMostIn ?ls 50 '?l law
           (and (agent ?a '?j) (object ?a '?l)))))
PL:    ∃a approval(a) ^  ∃js set(js)^size(js,9) ^  ∃ls set(ls)^size(ls,50) ^
         ∀j∈js agent(a,j) ^  ∃mostOfls set(mostOfls)
           (∀l∈ls  (object(a,l) => l∈mostOfls))   ^  size(mostOfls) >= 2
                                                 // >=2 since size(ls)/2=1.5 
XOWLD: <Set rdf:ID="Judges"/>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="separately">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Judge"/></rdf:Description>
       <Set rdf:ID="Laws"><size>50</size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="separately">
          <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Law"/></rdf:Description>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Laws" interpretation="collective">
         <objectOf><Approval><agent>
           <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Judges" interpretation="collective"
                                                    quantifier="most">
              <size>9</size>
           </rdf:Description></agent></Approval></objectOf></rdf:Description>
N3:    @exist :a. {:a a :approval}  :Judges a Set; size 9.  :Laws a Set; size 50.
       @forAll :j.  { :j a :Judge; is pm:member of :Judges }
           => { {:a :agent :j;}.  @forSome :mostOfls. :mostOfls a :Set; >= 2.
                @forAll :l.  { :l a :Law; is pm:member of :Laws}
                  =>{ {:a :object :l} => {:l is pm:member of :mostOfls} }
              }

Here is a KIF definition of forMostIn (the definition of numMembersSuchThat was given earlier).
(defrelation forMostIn (?set ?num ?var ?type ?predicate) :=
  (and (size ?set ?num)
       (truth ^(forall (,?var) (=> (member ,?var ,?set) (,?type ,?var))))
       (>= (numMembersSuchThat ,?set ,?predicate) (* (size ,?set) 0.6))))



10. Higher-order Statements

First-order statements only permit to use universal quantification over individuals. Higher-order statements also permit to universal quantification over types. OWL does not permit genuine universal quantification (it only accepts certain forms of class definition) or rules. The definition of transitive_binary_relation requires such features and is a classic example of second-order statement. (A first-order statement is sufficient to describe the transitivity of a particular relation, e.g., "the part of a part is also a part", but would also be difficult to express in OWL without using the type owl#transitive_property. Hence, as opposed to the previous examples, a "slight" extension to OWL would be insufficient for the example below. Instead, the proposed translation uses "big" extensions to RDF imagined by Berners-Lee in 1999: a forall construct and new attributes such as pname to quantify over classes. However, in 2001, DAML+OIL, the precursor of the OWL, was adopted by the W3C as an extension to RDF, and hence it is unlikely that Tim Berners Lee's extensions for genuine universal quantification will be adopted in the future.

E:    A transitive_binary_relation_type rt is such that
        if x is connected to y by a relation of type rt, and 
           y is connected to z by a relation of type rt, 
        then x is connected to z by a relation of type rt.
FCG:  [type transitive_binary_relation_type (*rt) :=
        [ [^x, *rt: (^y, *rt: ^z)] => [^x, *rt: ^z]
        ]] //^x and ^y are "free variables", i.e., variables that are
           //implicitely universally quantified (KIF also accepts them)
KIF:  (defrelation transitive_binary_relation_type (?rt) :=
        (and (binrel ?rt ?s)     //?s is a free variable
             (forall (?x ?y ?z)
               (=> (and (?rt ?x ?y) (?rt ?y ?z)) (?rt ?x ?z)))))
      //to be accepted in all the versions of KIF, it would be better to write 
      //    (=> (and (holds ?rt ?x ?y)(holds ?rt ?y ?z))(holds ?rt ?x ?z)))))
      //but since variables for predicates have already been used in definitions
      //above, that facility is re-used here
RDF+: <forall var="r" v2="x" v3="y" v4="z"> <!--var,v2,v3,v4: new attributes-->
        <if><TransitiveBinaryRelationType rdf:about="#rt">
        <then><if><rdf:Description about="#x">
                    <rdf:property pname="#rt"><!-- pname: new attribute -->
                      <rdf:Description about="#y">
                        <rdf:property pname="#rt"><rdf:Description about="#z"/>
                        </rdf:property></rdf:Description>
                    </rdf:property></rdf:Description>
              <then><rdf:Description about="#x">
                      <rdf:property pname="#rt"><rdf:Description about="#z"/>
                      </rdf:property></rdf:Description>
              </then></if></then></if></forall>
N3:   @forAll :rt .{ :rt a owl:TransitiveProperty. } log:implies
      { @forAll :x , :y , :z.
        { :x :rt :y. :y :rt :z. } log:implies { :x :rt :z. }.
      }.  <!-- assuming that :rt is a variable for a type, not a type -->
KRF:   Definition {dType:MetaType transitive_binary_relation_type
                   kind:NSC  parameter:("rt") embeddedNode1:ENode {
         embeddedNode1:
           QNode {var:"x" sourceOf:Relation{var:"rt" dest:
             QNode{var:"y" sourceOf:Relation{var:"rt" dest:QNode{var:"z"}}}}}
         sourceOf: ENode {embeddedNode1:
           QNode {var:"x" sourceOf:Relation{var:"rt" dest:QNode{var:"z"}}}}}}



11. Ontology-dependent Representations

Measures

Although measure representation is a "content ontology" issue (such as how to represent relations from states, processes or statements) rather than a "language ontology" issue (such as quantification and contextualization), it has to be treated now because FE and FCG provide shortcuts which are discussed after this example.

E:     There is a car that weights 923.5 kg.
FE:    There is a car that has for weight 923.5 kg.
FCG:   [a car, weight: 923.5 kg]
 or:   [a car, weight: a weight *w] [measure(*w,923.5,kg)]
KIF:   (exists ((?c car) (?w weight))
         (and (weight2 ?c ?w) (measure ?w 923.5 kg)))
XOWLL: <Car><weight><Weight><measure><Measure><unit rdf:resource="#kg"/>
                                              <number>923.5</number></Measure>
                            </measure></Weight></weight></Car>
N3:    [a :Car; :weight2 [a :Weight; :measure; [a :Measure; :unit :kg; :number "923.5"] ] ].
KRF:   QNode{cType:car  sourceOf:Relation{rType:weight dest:
         QNode{cType:kg quantifier:Quantifier{num:"923.5"}}}}

As illustrated above, in FE and FCG, instead of using the relation measure, a real number can be put in front of a "unit" class as if it was a collection-related numerical quantifier (a difference is that this numerical quantifier can only be a positive integer since it represents the number of objects in a collection). FE and FCG also permit a "dimension" class (or more generally any subclass of pm#thing_that_can_be_seen_as_a_relation) to be used as if it was a relation type (which implicitely has for range an object of the class). This eases the entering, reading and matching of statements, and avoids duplicating the hierarchy of classes for dimensions into a hierarchy of relation types for these dimensions (as must be done with the other notations). This approach is also consistent with the way qualitative values are represented (e.g., a certain red represents a certain number of hertz, and a red car can be represented as [a car, color: a red]). However, this approach implies that red is a subclass of color and kg is a subclass of weight. This is a rather natural categorization and is the case in WordNet, but some ontologies (e.g., DOLCE) categorize red and kg as dimension values (or "quales") which are exclusive with dimensions/attributes (or "qualities"). Since this alternative approach does not permit to exploit generalization links, it either requires the introduction of relations and definitions to connect each dimension and its related values, or inferencing possibilities are lost, and hence this not a scalable approach. However, if this is done, such ontologies can be used with the above approach. For example, assuming that red now denotes a dimension value, and that value is a generic relation between dimensions and dimension values, the following FCG can be written: [a car, color: (a color, value: a red)].



Intervals

An interval of numerical quantifiers has different representations depending on their meaning: number of objects or measure. Below is an example. Alternatively, if the interval is simply a collection of 2 numbers, the usual representation for a collection is sufficient.

E:     2 to 3 persons are running for 45.5 minutes to an hour.
FE:    2 to 3 persons is agent of a run with duration 45.5 to 60 minutes.
FCG:   [2 to 3 persons, agent of: (a run, duration: 45 to 60 minute)]
KIF:   (forAllInBetween 2 3 '?p person
         (exists ((?r run) (?d duration) (?n number))
           (and (duration2 ?r ?d) (measure ?d ?n minute)
                (>= ?n 45.5) (=< ?n60))))
XOWLD: <Set rdf:ID="persons"/>
       <Set rdf:ID="Persons"><size><Number><atLeast>2</atLeast>
                                     <atMost>3</atMost><Number></size></Set>
       <rdf:Description rdf:aboutEach="#Persons" interpretation="default">
         <rdf:type rdf:resource="#Person"/>
         <agentof><Run><duration><Duration><measure>
                                   <Measure><unit rdf:resource="#minutes"/>
                                            <number>45.5</number></Measure>
                                   </Measure></measure></duration></Duration>
                  </Run></agentof></rdf:Description>
N3:    :Persons a Set; :size [a :Number; atLeast 2; atMost 3].
       @forAll :p. {:p a :Person; is :member of :Persons}
          => { [a :Run;  agent :p;  :duration
                  [a Duration; measure
                    [a :Measure; :unit :minute; :atLeast "45.5"; :atMost "60"]
                  ] ] }
KRF:   QNode{cType:person quantifier:Quantifier{num:"2" toNumber:"3"}
         sourceOf:isReversed Relation{rType:agent dest:
           QNode{cType:run sourceOf:Relation{rType:duration dest: QNode{
             cType:"minute" quantifier:Quantifier{num:"45.5" toNumber:"60"}}}}}}

Here is a KIF definition of forAllInBetween.
(defrelation forAllInBetween (?s ?n1 ?n2 ?var ?type ?predicate) :=
  (exists (?n) (and (size ?s ?n) (>= ?n ?n1) (=< ?n ?n2)
       (truth ^(forall (,?var) (=> (member ,?var ,?s)
                                   (and (,?type ,?var) ,?predicate))))))



Qualitative Valuations



Bibliography

Martin Ph. & Eklund P. (2001). Large-scale cooperatively-built heterogeneous KBs. Proceedings of ICCS'01, 9th International Conference on Conceptual Structures (Springer Verlag, LNAI 2120, pp. 231-244), Stanford University, California, USA, July 30 to August 3, 2001. http://www.webkb.org/doc/papers/iccs01/

Martin Ph. (2002a). Knowledge representation in CGLF, CGIF, KIF, Frame-CG and Formalized-English. Proceedings of ICCS'02, 10th International Conference on Conceptual Structures (Springer Verlag, LNAI 2393, pp. 77-91), Borovets, Bulgaria, July 15-19, 2002. http://www.webkb.org/doc/papers/iccs02/

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