The frame ontology defines the terms that capture conventions used in object-centered knowledge representation systems. Since these terms are built upon the semantics of KIF, one can think of KIF plus the frame-ontology as a specialized representation language. The frame ontology is the conceptual basis for the Ontolingua translators.One purpose of this ontology is to enable people using different representation systems to share ontologies that are organized along object-centered, term-subsumption lines. Translators of ontologies written in KIF using the frame ontology, such as those provided by Ontolingua, allow one to work from a common source format and yet continue to use existing representation systems.
The definitions in this ontology are based on common usage in the computer science and mathematics literatures. However, there is no claim that these definitions capture the semantics of existing, implemented systems in full detail. Nuances of the meaning of terms that depend on the algorithms for inheritance, for instance, are not addressed in this ontology. See the acknowledgements at the end of the file.
This ontology is specified using the definitional forms provided by Ontolingua. All of the embedded sentences are in KIF 3.0, and the whole thing can be translated into pure KIF top level forms without loss of information.
The basic ontological commitments of this ontology are
- Relations are sets of tuples -- named by predicates
- Functions are a special case of relations
- Classes are unary relations -- no special syntax for types
- Extensional semantics for classes -- defined as sets, not descriptions
- No special treatment of slots, just binary relations and unary functions
- KL-ONE style specs are relations on relations (second-order relations, not metalinguistic or modal)
Kif-Extensions Kif-Relations
Abstract-Algebra Basic-Matrix-Algebra Bibliographic-Data Component-Assemblies Dme-Kb Jat-Generic Parametric-Constraints Product-Theory Slot-Constraint-Sugar
Antisymmetric-Relation
Asymmetric-Relation
Partial-Order-Relation
Total-Order-Relation
Class
Class-Partition
Inherited-Through-Class-Of-Relation
Irreflexive-Relation
Asymmetric-Relation ...
Many-To-Many-Relation
Many-To-One-Relation
One-To-Many-Relation
One-To-One-Relation
Reflexive-Relation
Equivalence-Relation
Partial-Order-Relation ...
Symmetric-Relation
Equivalence-Relation
Thing
Individual-Thing
Transitive-Relation
Equivalence-Relation
Partial-Order-Relation ...
Weak-Transitive-Relation
Alias Composition-Of Direct-Instance-Of Direct-Subclass-Of Documentation Domain Domain-Of Exhaustive-Subclass-Partition Has-Instance Has-Value Inherited-Facet-Value Inherited-Slot-Value Instance-Of Maximum-Slot-Cardinality Maximum-Value-Cardinality Minimum-Slot-Cardinality Minimum-Value-Cardinality Nth-Domain Onto Range Range-Of Related-Axioms Same-Slot-Values Same-Values Single-Valued-Slot Slot-Value-Type Subclass-Of Subclass-Partition Subrelation-Of Superclass-Of Total-On Value-Type
All-Inherited-Slot-Values All-Instances All-Values Arity Compose Exact-Domain Exact-Range One-Of Projection Relation-Universe Slot-Cardinality Value-Cardinality
Antisymmetric-Relation Asymmetric-Relation Class Class-Partition Equivalence-Relation Individual-Thing Inherited-Through-Class-Of-Relation Irreflexive-Relation Many-To-Many-Relation Many-To-One-Relation One-To-Many-Relation One-To-One-Relation Partial-Order-Relation Reflexive-Relation Symmetric-Relation Thing Total-Order-Relation Transitive-Relation Weak-Transitive-Relation
All constants that were mentioned were defined.