RE: English examples in the OWL 2 syntax specification

I would see it differently.

Each form has a different purpose. The OWL-bound form merely helps 'read'
the formula correctly, so that e.g. the argument positions are not
erroneously swapped. On the other hand, the NL form helps reveal a 'deeper'
or 'less obvious' meaning (but there might be a mental gap between this and
the original OWL code). So, for *some* constructions I would see the
combination of both as justified.

OTOH, if you care for space, I would actually suggest to remove most of the
recurring transcriptions of the same thing. In particular, I expect that
90% of the readers understand the set-theoretic interpretation of
'subclassOf' before starting to read the spec, and the remaining ones do
not need more than 1-2 exemplifications before getting the point.

Best
Vojtech

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vojtech Svatek, University of Economics, Prague
Nam.W.Churchilla 4, 13067 Praha 3, CZECH REPUBLIC
phone: +420 224095495, e-mail: svatek@vse.cz
web: http://nb.vse.cz/~svatek



-----"Boris Motik" <boris.motik@comlab.ox.ac.uk> napsal: -----

>Komu: "'Vojtech Svatek'" <Svatek@vse.cz>
>Od: "Boris Motik" <boris.motik@comlab.ox.ac.uk>
>Datum: 14.09.2008 23:24
>Kopie: "'Kaarel Kaljurand'" <kaljurand@gmail.com>,
><public-owl-wg@w3.org>
>Předmět: RE: English examples in the OWL 2 syntax specification
>
>Hello,
>
>Using both forms might be really awkward. There is not that much
>space and I don't really know how to link the two sentences
>together. Using two forms seems to me like saying "We weren't able to
>decide".
>
>Regards,
>
>    Boris
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: public-owl-wg-request@w3.org
>[mailto:public-owl-wg-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Vojtech Svatek
>> Sent: 14 September 2008 21:16
>> To: Boris Motik
>> Cc: 'Kaarel Kaljurand'; public-owl-wg@w3.org
>> Subject: RE: English examples in the OWL 2 syntax specification
>>
>>
>> Hi Boris, all,
>>
>> My (instant) suggestion would be:
>> - to use *both* forms when the particular construct is used for the
>first
>> time, for sure
>> - then to only use one of them (to reduce verbosity), probably the
>natural
>> language one.
>>
>> I definitely advise to systematically use, in a single example,
>either the
>> names with the prefix ('a:') or the common names only. To say,
>either we
>> talk about a relationship of semantic web entities: "a:Brian is a
>a:Dog"
>> (referring to an individual identified by a URL, and a class from
>the
>> particular ontology), or "Brian is a dog" (which means that the
>identity of
>> the individual and the set-theoretic meaning of the 'dog' concept
>follow,
>> considering the sentence by itself, from some context - which
>merely
>> happens to coincide with the mentioned URIs).
>>
>> Regards
>> Vojtech
>>
>>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>-
>> Vojtech Svatek, University of Economics, Prague
>> Nam.W.Churchilla 4, 13067 Praha 3, CZECH REPUBLIC
>> phone: +420 224095495, e-mail: svatek@vse.cz
>> web: http://nb.vse.cz/~svatek
>>
>>
>>
>> -----public-owl-wg-request@w3.org napsal: -----
>>
>> >Komu: "'Kaarel Kaljurand'" <kaljurand@gmail.com>,
>> ><public-owl-wg@w3.org>
>> >Od: "Boris Motik" <boris.motik@comlab.ox.ac.uk>
>> >Odeslal: public-owl-wg-request@w3.org
>> >Datum: 14.09.2008 21:59
>> >Předmět: RE: English examples in the OWL 2 syntax specification
>> >
>> >
>> >(I redirected this discussion to public-owl-wg, because I feel
>this
>> >is a more appropriate list.)
>> >
>> >Hello,
>> >
>> >Thanks a lot for this analysis -- it is certainly important to
>make
>> >the examples as consistent as possible.
>> >
>> >Before I change the examples, though, I believe we need to decide
>on
>> >the purpose of the English examples. I included them into the
>> >spec because I felt that many readers could benefit from an
>intuitive
>> >explanation what a particular axiom means. At first, I tried
>> >not to use the actual OWL elements in the example; thus, I would
>> >explain an axiom
>> >
>> >SubClassOf( a:Child a:Person )
>> >
>> >with the sentence "Children are people". But then, some people
>> >complained about such paraphrasing of the axioms: they felt that
>> >this
>> >was imprecise. Instead, they thought we should paraphrase this
>axiom
>> >as "Each instance of a:Child is an instance of a:Person as
>> >well" -- that is, to use a more modeling-centric view. I updated
>much
>> >of the spec; however, I did not know myself what to do in many
>> >cases. Thus, it is highly likely that the examples are
>inconsistent.
>> >
>> >Now the question is really what approach to adopt. I still
>believe
>> >that having some kind of English explanation would be very
>> >useful. I'd like to hear from others about what kind of approach
>to
>> >adopt there -- a more natural-language one or a more OWL-centric
>> >one.
>> >
>> >Thanks again -- I find this analysis really useful.
>> >
>> >Regards,
>> >
>> >    Boris
>> >
>> >> -----Original Message-----
>> >> From: public-owl-dev-request@w3.org
>> >[mailto:public-owl-dev-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Kaarel
>> >> Kaljurand
>> >> Sent: 14 September 2008 20:26
>> >> To: public-owl-dev@w3.org
>> >> Subject: English examples in the OWL 2 syntax specification
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> I extracted all the examples from the OWL 2 Syntax
>specification
>> >(a
>> >> revision from
>> >> the end of August) to see how the specification expresses the
>OWL
>> >> axioms in English.
>> >> After sorting the examples by the axioms, many irregularities
>in
>> >the
>> >> English expressions
>> >> were revealed. I think most of the irregularities are
>> >unintended/unwanted.
>> >>
>> >> See the report:
>> >>
>> >>
>>
>>http://www.cl.uzh.ch/kalju/ontologies/OWL_spec/owl_spec_examples.htm
>l
>> >
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> kaarel
>>

Received on Monday, 15 September 2008 14:31:30 UTC