Relying on RDF(S) semantics

RDFS extends RDF by assigning a semantics to particular RDF
constructs. For example, the property "subClassOf" is given a
(relatively informal) semantics in the RDFS specification. The same
should be true for DAML-ONT - it extends RDF/RDFS by assigning a
semantics (preferably well defined) to certain constructs. It is
pointless to say that we rely on the semantics of the host language
(RDF/RDFS in this case) as in this case we are not extending it, just
writing something down in it - I can say x subClassOf y in RDF, but it
doesn't have any meaning beyond the fact that x is related to y by
some relation that just happens to have the name subClassOf.

Ian
--
Ian Horrocks, Department of Computer Science,
University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Tel: +44 161 275 6133  Fax: +44 161 275 6204  Email: horrocks@cs.man.ac.uk
URL: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~horrocks

Received on Monday, 16 October 2000 09:07:44 UTC