Re: Xtreme Punning

off-list wrote:
> could 
> you please point me to examples of use of punning in real applications.
> 

There are three examples that fall under the two kinds that Michael 
identified:

>>>
>>> When thinking about punning in OWL-1.1-DL, I always differentiated 
>>> between
>>> two "kinds" of punning:
>>>
>>>     * punning between individuals and classes,


A) classes as instances
=======================
A class in one view of an ontology may be an individual in another.
e.g.
the class of Ford Motor Vehicle Models, may include the individual Ford 
Cortina;
the class of Ford Cortina may include a particular car that I once owned 
(actually an untrue statement!).

It can be argued that this is a modelling error. However, if so, it is a 
popular one.

>>>
>>>     * punning between data properties and object properties.
>>>

B) RDF legacy
=============
dc:creator is used as both, and its definition seems to expect it to be 
used as both. There are perhaps some other properties from the RDF world 
that are important and behave similarly. (e.g. rdf:_1, rdf:_2)

Technically, but of no great interest really, RDF legacy also includes 
some 'punning' between individuals and classes, because RDF includes 
metamodelling such as:
  owl:inverseOf rdf:type rdf:Property.


C) lists
========
Evren provided the example of rdf:first (or eg:first in a shadow 
vocabulary), in a list. In a list of literals, rdf:first acts as a data 
property, in a list of things, rdf:first acts as an object property.

Bijan motivates some of the design decisions in OWL 1.1 as trying to 
accomodate more RDF, so that arguments B and C have merit. Also, because 
of the popularity of the modelling technique of classes as instances, A 
has merit.
[[Bijan, have I correctly understood your position?]]

Jeremy

Received on Friday, 11 January 2008 10:57:24 UTC