Re: Representation of Negative Assertions in OWL 1.0

On Jun 8, 2008, at 7:14 AM, Kashyap, Vipul wrote:

>
>
>> Individual(Sarkozy type(Restriction(isPresidentOf allValuesFrom
>> (complementOf(oneOf(USA))))))
>
> The above statement says:
> "If Sarkozy is the president of a country than that country is a  
> country other
> than the USA".
>
> This to me appears different from "Sarkozy is not the president of  
> USA".
>
> How about the following formulation (Please excuse incorrect syntax):
>
> Individual(Sarkoy type(Restriction(= 0 isPresidentOf oneOf{USA)}))

isPresidentOf only (not {USA})
and
isPresidentOf exactly 0 {USA}

are equivalent classes. Try it in protege 4.

> I would assume that the above two formulations are logically  
> equivalent but the
> latter seems closer to the negated assertion.

I can believe that some might view things as such. Personally, I look  
to the logical equivalence and say they say the exact same thing.

> In a more general context, given that there might be multiple ways  
> of saying the
> same thing, would it be of interest to propose best practices/style  
> guides for
> these situations?

I don't know. Certainly there is value in explaining that and how  
they mean the same thing.

> At the same time, I think this syntactic sugar offers a big value  
> add for
> ontology authors seeking to develop simpler ontologies.
>
> ---Vipul
>
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Received on Sunday, 8 June 2008 18:45:59 UTC