Re: RDF and OWL compatibility

Please forgive my lack of arcane logic ..
  but it seems to me that the use of gensym here:

> kb:works-with(Z,X) :- rdf:type(X,db:employee), gensym(Z).

is not sound. Presumably, what is really meant is:

kb:works-with(Sy,X) :- rdf:type(X,db:employee)  where Sy is some  
gensym().

I.e., the skolemization should be done once and for all, not on each  
use of the rule.

However, at the moment, I can't see why you would want to skolemize  
at all .. what is wrong with the rule with the universal quantifier  
in it?

Frank McCabe



On Jan 9, 2006, at 9:50 AM, Dave Reynolds wrote:

>
> Enrico Franconi wrote:
>
>> On 5 Jan 2006, at 15:51, Dave Reynolds wrote:
>>> On the question of bNodes in the head, I hear the argument that  
>>> it  is not sufficient to just treat these as new Skolem constants  
>>> but  my intuitive understanding of the issue is too weak. It  
>>> would be  really helpful if someone could construct a test case  
>>> which  demonstrates the difference in results that arise between  
>>> correct  treatment of bNodes in the head versus treatment as  
>>> Skolem  constants. In the concrete cases I've seen where bNodes  
>>> are used in  the head of rules they seem to be intended as a form  
>>> of anonymous  gensym - so the Skolem constant semantics may be  
>>> the more  practically useful interpretation.
>> A a naive gensym would fail the use case  <http://www.w3.org/2005/  
>> rules/wg/wiki/Managing_incomplete_information>, where two  
>> examples  (in section "9.4. (Rules involving generation of  
>> unknown)") show how  you can make things wrong with a naive use of  
>> skolem constants to  implement the existential variables in the head.
>
> Sorry to be slow on the uptake but I didn't follow why the examples  
> break with naive gensym.
>
> The example in 9.4 on that page shows the rules:
>
> [[[
>       rdf:type(X,db:employee) :- kb:works-with(X,Y).
>       kb:works-with(Z,X) :- rdf:type(X,db:employee).
> ]]]
>
> A naive implementation of bNodes-by-gensym would rewrite the unsafe  
> second rule to something like:
>
>       kb:works-with(Z,X) :- rdf:type(X,db:employee), gensym(Z).
>
> where "gensym/1" returns some freshly minted bNode on each call;
>
> or, better,
>
>       kb:works-with(Z,X) :- rdf:type(X,db:employee), gensym(X, Z).
>
> where "gensym/2" binds Z to some bNode which is a (skolem-)function  
> of X.
>
> As far as I can see either of these would return the same answer as  
> the classical semantics for both of your test cases 9.4.1 and 9.4.2.
>
> Dave
>
>

Received on Monday, 9 January 2006 19:15:46 UTC