Yes, Chris, the different hearers would typically know which reference is
intended, or if it is not known, will interact with the participant or
conversant(s) (if I may coin a phrase) in a conversation (or when reading,
refer back to other texts, etc.) and determine the reference. However, machines
do not (yet) have this ability. And without interaction in conversation, the
hearers could have different referents. "The same context" covers potentially a
lot of ground here. The conversation or discourse extends and refines the
context so that at a certain point the reference is (mostly) unambiguous. As
the utterer (or writer), I would know what I intend to refer to (with the usual
technical hand-waving about reference and its determination). (01)
When I say "person" or "people", you probably clearly understand what I mostly
mean by this, because you know English and all the knowledge behind the scenes,
i.e., how terms refer and what they refer to, generally, and also specifically
here when I mention "person", and of course the ontology of the world. However,
perhaps idiosyncratically, I extend the reference of "person" (actually, more
colloquially "people") to higher mammals, and this is true in my own house to
my dogs. You don't know that (unless I tell you that), and so you will not
necessarily know my reference, but you can ascertain it in conversation with me
over time. You may not agree with my term->concept mapping, but you understand
my term->concept mapping. And by doing so, I think, perhaps only for the
duration of our conversation, you are mapping "people" into a kind of temporary
ontology or local interpretation, which in turn maps to your more permanent
ontology. (02)
Thanks,
Leo (03)
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Partridge [mailto:partridge.csj@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 6:03 PM
To: Obrst, Leo J.; '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: RE: [ontolog-forum] Fact Guru, Controlled NLs, and OOR (04)
Hi Leo, (05)
Can I clarify?
Is the idea that a single utterance of these phrases can be understood by
different hearers in the same context as having different references,
because they are ambiguous?
And wouldn't the utterer know which reference is intended? (06)
Chris (07)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Obrst, Leo J. [mailto:lobrst@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 30 March 2011 21:41
> To: mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; [ontolog-forum]
> Subject: RE: [ontolog-forum] Fact Guru, Controlled NLs, and OOR
>
> Thanks, Chris. Yes, I admit we should aspire to 1 term - many referents,
but with
> potentially ambiguous/synonymous terms (especially when they are phrases),
it
> will be many-to-many, since there may be many ways to refer to the same
> concept, just as there may be many ways to refer to many concepts.
>
> E.g., notoriously, "timed flies", perhaps "criminal lawyers", "half-empty
tanks",
> "half-full tanks", etc.
>
> Thanks,
> Leo
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-
> bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Partridge
> Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 3:50 PM
> To: '[ontolog-forum] '
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Fact Guru, Controlled NLs, and OOR
>
> Hi Leo,
>
> > And note that there is not a 1-1 relationship between terms and
> > concepts, but a many-many, depending on the language and of course the
> > ontology.
>
> Depends on what you think of as the term. If you have an
utterance/inscription
> view, it is one-many.
>
> Chris
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-
> > bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Obrst, Leo J.
> > Sent: 30 March 2011 20:17
> > To: [ontolog-forum]
> > Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Fact Guru, Controlled NLs, and OOR
> >
> > The way to distinguish terminology and ontology is that you use terms
> (natural
> > language words, phrases) to refer to "concepts" (ideas, referents,
> categories,
> > etc.) So the former is semantics, i.e., ways of referring (quite often
> just lexical
> > semantics, but you can imagine a phrase "gasoline tank" or "steel
> crankshaft,
> > corroded and discarded"), the latter is ontology, i.e., what is
> > referred
> to,
> > typically real world objects or categories.
> >
> > You may also use a term as a label for a concept, which is fine if you
> understand
> > the distinction, but the concept could be labeled KDKJKDLK123 in the
> ontology
> > and that really is just as valid, if perverse (though you cannot
> > interpret
> it
> > semantically as an English speaker unless you see the term in the
> terminology
> > that refers to it). And note that there is not a 1-1 relationship
> > between
> terms and
> > concepts, but a many-many, depending on the language and of course the
> > ontology.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Leo
> > _____________________________________________
> > Dr. Leo Obrst The MITRE Corporation, Information Semantics
> > lobrst@xxxxxxxxx Information Discovery & Understanding, Command &
> > Control Center
> > Voice: 703-983-6770 7515 Colshire Drive, M/S H305
> > Fax: 703-983-1379 McLean, VA 22102-7508, USA
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-
> > bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Bennett
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 1:07 PM
> > To: [ontolog-forum]
> > Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Fact Guru, Controlled NLs, and OOR
> >
> > We made a point of not including words / lexical terms as ontology
> objects, i.e.
> > no use of OWL Equivalent Class.
> >
> > As Mike Atkin puts it, people will argue forever about the meaning of
> > a
> word,
> > but will soon reach consensus on the concepts themselves. To include
> > those
> in
> > the ontology actually makes the ontology harder to explain to business
> > stakeholders.
> >
> > Also does that mean you have two separate theories of meaning within
> > the same model? How do you distinguish those e.g. is there is some
> > obvious
> visual
> > distinction between the sets of terms that come under the two theories?
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > On 30/03/2011 17:49, Matthew West wrote:
> > > Dear Mike,
> > >
> > > One of the things we did in ISO 15926 was to distinguish logical
> > > terms/concepts/meanings from their representation by words/lexical
> > > terms/phrases, but treating the lexical terms as first class objects
> > > in the ontology itself, rather than things outside it.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > >
> > > Matthew West
> > > Information Junction
> > > Tel: +44 1489 880185
> > > Mobile: +44 750 3385279
> > > Skype: dr.matthew.west
> > > matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
> > > http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
> > >
> > > This email originates from Information Junction Ltd. Registered in
> > > England and Wales No. 6632177.
> > > Registered office: 2 Brookside, Meadow Way, Letchworth Garden City,
> > > Hertfordshire, SG6 3JE.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-
> > >> bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Bennett
> > >> Sent: 30 March 2011 16:50
> > >> To: [ontolog-forum]
> > >> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Fact Guru, Controlled NLs, and OOR
> > >>
> > >> That does sound interesting. I had a sort of "Aha" moment last week
> > >> when we were talking about synonyms and heteronyms at an OMG / EDM
> > >> Council event. It struck me that an ontology has formal definitions
> > >> of concepts with synonyms, whereas a terminology is a set of words,
> > >> with one or more meanings per word, and therefore has heteronyms.
> > >> That's why for instance we have no concept of heteronym in our
> > >> ontology. Nor (for similar reasons) do we have homonyms.
> > >>
> > >> No doubt for most people that's this week's glimpse into the
> > >> obvious, but it made things come clear for me - ontologies and
> > >> terminologies are complementary but different, so any tool that
> > >> formally relates one to the other has to be good.
> > >>
> > >> Mike
> > >>
> > >> On 30/03/2011 15:05, John F. Sowa wrote:
> > >>> We have discussed the relationships between ontologies and
> > >> terminologies
> > >>> in many email threads. Some people blur the distinction by saying
> > >> that
> > >>> their terminologies are ontologies, and others make a sharp
> > >> distinction
> > >>> between them. But one point is clear: the people who use
> > >> applications
> > >>> only see terminologies, and the developers need to relate
> > >>> ontologies to terminologies.
> > >>>
> > >>> A few weeks ago, I sent a note that mentioned Fact Guru by Doug
> > >>> Skuce as tool that could help bridge the gap between terminologies
> > >>> and ontologies. In particular, FG could simplify the task of
> > >>> mapping the terms of an terminology to the more formal ontology.
> > >>> After the development of the ontology, FG could be used to display
> > >>> either or both, side by side. For the Open Ontology Repository,
> > >>> FG could be useful, but only if the software were available as
> > >>> open
> source.
> > >>>
> > >>> Therefore, I had a discussion with Doug about the possibility of
> > >>> releasing the Fact Guru software as open source under the LGPL.
> > >>> Doug agreed, and he is also planning to attend the Ontology Summit
> > >>> on April 18. He would be happy to discuss the use of FG with
> > >>> anyone who may be interested. On the cc list above, I added the
> > >>> email for Doug Skuce and for John Talbot, who did most of the
> implementation.
> > >>>
> > >>> In the links below, note the wide range of sophistication of the
> > >>> possible applications. The Animals example was implemented by
> > >>> Doug's 9-year-old daughter as a school project. The SUMO example
> > >>> was downloaded from the actual SUMO ontology. For each term in
> > >>> SUMO, FG shows both the English-like text and the axioms written
> > >>> in KIF.
> > >>>
> > >>> John Sowa
> > >>>
> > >>> -------- Original Message --------
> > >>> Subject: Fact Guru
> > >>> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:31:05 -0500
> > >>> From: John F. Sowa<sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> To: [ontolog-forum]<ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> CC: Doug Skuce<drskuce@xxxxxxxxx>
> > >>>
> > >>> I was talking with an old friend, Doug Skuce, who taught AI and
> > >>> knowledge engineering at the University of Ottawa for many years.
> > >>> He and his students and colleagues have developed some software
> > >>> that could be valuable for designing and supporting ontologies.
> > >>>
> > >>> In the late 80s he developed a knowledge acquisition tool called
> > >>> CODE (Conceptually Oriented Development Environment) in Smalltalk.
> > >>> Since CODE did not run on the web, he designed a new version
> > >>> called Fact Guru in the late 90s. FG can be used to organize a
> > >>> knowledge base of any kind and present it in a highly readable
> > >>> way;
> > >>>
> > >>> http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~tcl/factguru1/FactGuru.pdf
> > >>>
> > >>> Following is a blurb from the web site:
> > >>>
> > >>> With Fact Guru you can improve understanding by:
> > >>>
> > >>> * storing facts grouped by subject in a highly structured
> > >>> knowledge base.
> > >>>
> > >>> * searching the knowledge base to find just the fact you
> > >>> need
> > >>>
> > >>> * comparing subjects to see a comparison matrix of
> > >>> differences
> > >>>
> > >>> * viewing subjects as a graph to see relationships between
> > >> them
> > >>> For a beginner's example that uses only English, see the knowledge
> > >>> base of Canadian Animals, which was implemented by Doug's nine
> > >>> year old daughter. Click on any animal name to find a collection
> > >>> of information about it:
> > >>>
> > >>> http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~tcl/factguru1/animals/index.html
> > >>>
> > >>> More important for ontology is the use of Fact Guru to import,
> > >>> organize, and display the top-level ontology of SUMO:
> > >>>
> > >>> http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~tcl/factguru1/sumo/index.html
> > >>>
> > >>> For an example of a knowledge base about a technical subject, see
> > >>> the Fact Guru KB about the Java programming language, which Doug
> > >>> used for teaching a course on Java:
> > >>>
> > >>> http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~tcl/factguru1/java/index.html
> > >>>
> > >>> This KB is important for two reasons: (1) it is cross linked to
> > >>> an associated HTML document about Java; and (2) it is written in a
> > >>> version of controlled English called ClearTalk.
> > >>>
> > >>> Doug is currently working with some programmers who are
> > >>> reimplementing Fact Guru with the Drupal content management
> > >>> software in order to organize and relate multiple knowledge bases.
> > >>> This could be useful for the Open Ontology Repository.
> > >>>
> > >>> I thought that participants in Ontolog Forum might express their
> > >>> wish list about features that would be useful for supporting
> > >>> ontologies and their applications.
> > >>>
> > >>> John Sowa
> > >>>
> > >>>
> >
> _________________________________________________________________
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> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Mike Bennett
> > >> Director
> > >> Hypercube Ltd.
> > >> 89 Worship Street
> > >> London EC2A 2BF
> > >> Tel: +44 (0) 20 7917 9522
> > >> Mob: +44 (0) 7721 420 730
> > >> www.hypercube.co.uk
> > >> Registered in England and Wales No. 2461068
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> >
> _________________________________________________________________
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> > >
> >
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> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mike Bennett
> > Director
> > Hypercube Ltd.
> > 89 Worship Street
> > London EC2A 2BF
> > Tel: +44 (0) 20 7917 9522
> > Mob: +44 (0) 7721 420 730
> > www.hypercube.co.uk
> > Registered in England and Wales No. 2461068
> >
> >
> >
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