semiotics.owl
type: Ontology
version info: 1.1 - Revised, added OWL2 axioms, added annotations for ODP submission 1.0 - Created by Aldo Gangemi (2007)
version info: 1.1 added rdfs:isDefinedBy for all named entities
comment: A content ontology pattern that encodes a basic semiotic theory, by reusing the situation pattern. The basic classes are: Expression, Meaning, Reference (the semiotic triangle), LinguisticAct (for the pragmatics), and Agent. A linguistic act is said to be context for expressions, with their meanings and references, and agents involved. Based on this pattern, several specific linguistic acts, such as 'tagging', 'translating', 'defining', 'formalizing', etc. can be defined, so constituting a formal vocabulary for a pragmatic web. This pattern has been extracted from a larger reference ontology, LMM, which is used in conjunction with DOLCE+DnS (http://www.ontologydesignpatterns.org/ont/dul/DUL.owl), in order to provide a metamodel to Wordnet, Linked Open Data, natural language processing data, etc.
has author: Aldo Gangemi
related c ps: IntensionExtension
has consequences: We can represent meanings or references of expressions, the context in which they have been used (e.g. the agent who used them), their manifestation. It differs from intensionextension.owl, which is purely about meaning and reference of expressions. A property chain also allows to infer aboutness and meaning of manifestations, not only (immaterial) information objects.
covers requirements: What's the meaning of that expression?,What that expression is about?,Who said that, and what was it referring to?,In what contexts that expression means this?,How that expression, referring to a certain thing, has been manifested by whom?
extracted from: http://www.ontologydesignpatterns.org/ont/lmm/LMM_L1.owl
imports: situation.owl

denotes
type: ObjectProperty
comment: A relation between expressions and anything (including expressions). It can be used to talk about e.g. entities denoted by proper nouns: the proper noun 'Leonardo da Vinci' denotes the person Leonardo da Vinci; as well as to talk about sets of entities that can be described by a common noun: the common noun 'person' denotes the collection of all persons in a domain of discourse. In OWL2, punning can be used to represent denotation of concept names with owl class extensions, e.g. 'mouse' denotes owl:Class:Mouse.
domain: InformationEntity
range: Reference
property chain axiom: semiotics.owl#isManifestationOf

expresses
type: ObjectProperty
label: esprime @it
comment: A relation between an Expression and a Meaning. For example: 'A Beehive is a structure in which bees are kept, typically in the form of a dome or box.' (Oxford dictionary)'; 'the term Beehive expresses the concept Beehive in my apiculture ontology'. The intuition for 'meaning' is intended to be very broad. A separate, large comment is included for those who want to investigate more on what kind of meaning can be represented in what form.
comment: This is a large comment field for those who want to investigate the different uses of the 'expresses' relation for modeling different approaches to meaning characterization and modeling. For example, in all these cases, some aspect of meaning is involved: - Beehive means "a structure in which bees are kept, typically in the form of a dome or box." (Oxford dictionary) - 'Beehive' is a synonym in noun synset 09218159 "beehive|hive" (WordNet) - 'the term Beehive can be interpreted as the fact of 'being a beehive', i.e. a relation that holds for concepts such as Bee, Honey, Hosting, etc.' - 'the text of Italian apiculture regulation expresses a rule by which beehives should be kept at least one kilometer away from inhabited areas' - 'the term Beehive expresses the concept Beehive' - ''Beehive' for apiculturists does not express the same meaning as for, say, fishermen' - 'Your meaning of 'Beautiful' does not seem to fit mine' - ''Beehive' is formally interpreted as the set of all beehives' - 'from the term 'Beehive', we can build a vector space of statistically significant cooccurring terms in the documents that contain it' - the lexeme 'Belly' expresses the role 'Body_Part' in the frame 'ObservableBodyParts' (FrameNet) As the examples suggest, the 'meaning of meaning' is dependent on the background approach/theory that one assumes. One can hardly make a summary of the too many approaches and theories of meaning, therefore this relation is maybe the most controversial and difficult to explain; normally, in such cases it would be better to give up formalizing. However, the usefulness of having a 'semantic abstraction' in modeling information objects is so high (e.g. for the semantic web, interoperability, reengineering, etc.), that we accept this challenging task, although without taking any particular position in the debate. We provide here some examples, which we want to generalize upon when using the 'expresses' relation to model semantic aspects of social reality. In …
domain: Expression
range: Meaning
sub property of: has meaning

has conceptualization
type: ObjectProperty
comment: The relation between a Meaning and a Reference : a Meaning conceptualizes an entity or a collection of entities. A same Reference can be given different conceptualizations, for example, an old cradle can be given a unifying Meaning based on the original aesthetic design, the functionality it was built for, or a new aesthetic functionality in which it can be used as a flower pot. Example: myoldcradle hasConceptualization FlowerPot. In OWL2, punning can be used to use the intension of an OWL class as a meaning, e.g. myoldcradle hasConceptualization owl:Class:FlowerPot.
range: Meaning
domain: Reference

has meaning
type: ObjectProperty
label: has interpretant
comment: The Peircean interpretant relation, widely adopted in semiotics: an Expression isInterpretantFor another, e.g. fourLeggedFriendOfHumans isInterpretantFor dog. Synonymy, translation, associativity, and topical proximity are all sources for interpretants, e.g.: domestic dog isInterpretantFor dog (synonymy); cane isInterpretantFor dog (translation); bark isInterpretantFor dog (associativity); veterinary isInterpretantFor dog (topical proximity). Semantic mechanisms such as metonymy depend on the interpretant relation. The interpretant relation is here taken as very broad, also accepting Manifestation(s) as interpretants.
domain: InformationEntity
range: Meaning
inverse of: isInterpretantFor
property chain axiom: semiotics.owl#isManifestationOf

semiotics.owl#hasManifestation
type: ObjectProperty
domain: InformationEntity
range: Manifestation

is conceptualization of
type: ObjectProperty
comment: The relation between a Meaning and a Reference : a Meaning conceptualizes an entity or a collection of entities. A same Reference can be given different conceptualizations, for example, an old cradle can be given a unifying Meaning based on the original aesthetic design, the functionality it was built for, or a new aesthetic functionality in which it can be used as a flower pot. Example: myoldcradle hasConceptualization FlowerPot. In OWL2, punning can be used to use the intension of an OWL class as a meaning, e.g. myoldcradle hasConceptualization owl:Class:FlowerPot.
domain: Meaning
range: Reference
inverse of: has conceptualization

isDenotedBy
type: ObjectProperty
comment: A relation between expressions and anything (including expressions). It can be used to talk about e.g. entities denoted by proper nouns: the proper noun 'Leonardo da Vinci' denotes the person Leonardo da Vinci; as well as to talk about sets of entities that can be described by a common noun: the common noun 'person' denotes the collection of all persons in a domain of discourse. In OWL2, punning can be used to represent denotation of concept names with owl class extensions, e.g. 'mouse' denotes owl:Class:Mouse.
range: InformationEntity
domain: Reference
inverse of: denotes
property chain axiom: semiotics.owl#hasManifestation

isExpressedBy
type: ObjectProperty
comment: A relation between an Expression and a Meaning. For example: 'A Beehive is a structure in which bees are kept, typically in the form of a dome or box.' (Oxford dictionary)'; 'the term Beehive expresses the concept Beehive in my apiculture ontology'. The intuition for 'meaning' is intended to be very broad. A separate, large comment is included for those who want to investigate more on what kind of meaning can be represented in what form.
range: Expression
domain: Meaning
inverse of: expresses
sub property of: isInterpretantFor

isInterpretantFor
type: ObjectProperty
comment: The Peircean interpretant relation, widely adopted in semiotics: an Expression isInterpretantFor another, e.g. fourLeggedFriendOfHumans isInterpretantFor dog. Synonymy, translation, associativity, and topical proximity are all sources for interpretants, e.g.: domestic dog isInterpretantFor dog (synonymy); cane isInterpretantFor dog (translation); bark isInterpretantFor dog (associativity); veterinary isInterpretantFor dog (topical proximity). Semantic mechanisms such as metonymy depend on the interpretant relation. The interpretant relation is here taken as very broad, also accepting Manifestation(s) as interpretants.
range: InformationEntity
domain: Meaning
property chain axiom: semiotics.owl#hasManifestation

semiotics.owl#isManifestationOf
type: ObjectProperty
range: InformationEntity
domain: Manifestation
inverse of: semiotics.owl#hasManifestation

related meaning
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
comment: A relation between any two Meaning(s).
domain: Meaning
range: Meaning

agent
type: Class
comment: An agent playing some role in a linguistic act

Expression
type: Class
equivalent class: Restriction
  on property: expresses
  some values from: Meaning
subclass of: InformationEntity
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: semiotics.owl#hasManifestation
  some values from: Manifestation
comment: Any information that either dul:expresses a Meaning or denotes a Reference

InformationEntity
type: Class
equivalent class: Class
  union of: Expression
  union of: Manifestation
equivalent class: Class
  union of: Restriction
    on property: denotes
    some values from: Reference
  union of: Restriction
    on property: has meaning
    some values from: Meaning
comment: Either an information object (expression) or its realization (manifestation).

Linguistic act
type: Class
label: Atto linguistico @it
subclass of: Situation
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isSettingFor
  some values from: Manifestation
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isSettingFor
  some values from: Reference
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isSettingFor
  some values from: Meaning
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isSettingFor
  some values from: agent
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isSettingFor
  some values from: Expression
comment: A communicative situation including expressions, agents, and the semiotic elements: physical (manifestations), conceptual (meanings), and referential (references).

Meaning
type: Class
equivalent class: Class
  union of: Restriction
    on property: is conceptualization of
    some values from: Reference
  union of: Restriction
    on property: isInterpretantFor
    some values from: InformationEntity
comment: Any conceptualization that isExpressedBy an Expression, or isInterpretationOf a Reference

Reference
type: Class
equivalent class: Class
  union of: Restriction
    on property: has conceptualization
    some values from: Meaning
  union of: Restriction
    on property: isDenotedBy
    some values from: InformationEntity
comment: Anything that isDenotedBy an Expression, or that hasInterpretation some Meaning