Ontopic ontology
type: Ontology
version info: 1.5
comment: An ontology of topics as used in thesauri, subject directories, etc. Topic is classified as a subclass of Collection, since its extensional semantics can be intended as a set of social objects (e.g. texts, concepts, other collections, relational meanings, etc.). Its intensional semantics is intended as an area of knowledge (or culture). The ontology is partly based on Chris Welty's formal ontology of subjects (DKE, 1999). Subtopic, near, and far relations are pretty similar to the ones defined there. The main differences are: - topics are intended here as collections of social objects, not as regions; there is anyway a morphism to the mereo-topological notion of Welty's, since for each topic as a collection we can define a topic space (a subclass of dul:Region) that corresponds to Welty's topics; - subjects in Welty's ontology, which are points in a topic region, are intended here in two ways: (1) as a dul:SocialObject that hasTopic a Topic. A dul:SocialObject in this case contains references to any entity that (in Welty's terms) 'is about' a topic (2) as a Subject, which is characterized here as a subclass of Topic, which isTopicOf exactly 1 dul:SocialObject For example, in Welty's theory, given a football event, there can be a subject for that event that is a point in the space of a topic, e.g. 'football'. In this ontology, this is represented as a dul:Event (the actual football event) that dul:isReferenceOf some dul:InformationObject (e.g. a report or article about the football event); such information object hasTopic a Topic (e.g. football). Therefore, this solution has specific counterparts to Welty's theory, although the intuition is very different: Welty's topics correspond here to Topic(s), Welty's subjects correspond here to parts of Topic(s), and Welty's individual entities in a domain ontology correspond here to any Entity that dul:isReferenceOf a dul:InformationObject that dul:expresses a dul:SocialObject that hasTopic a Topic. On the other hand, a geome…
comment: TODO: remove LMM imports from within the ontology.
version info: Version 1.2 Changes in 1.1: added a dimensional space to topics that follows Welty's theory: the new classes are TopicSpace and Subject. Changes in 1.2: added English labels. Added abstract topic spaces and subjects as from Welty's formal ontology of subject. Added in 1.3: difference between Subject and SubjectSpace, which reflects that between Topic and TopicSpace. Added in 1.4: the notion of TopicalSignature, which refers to the set of lmm1:Expression(s) that can populate a Topic. E.g. the entries from Roget's, Moby, SenseCorpus, etc. are signatures for a Topic. Changes in 1.5: changed domain of hasTopic property to dul:Entity, added subproperty axioms for topic-oriented properties
imports: LMM L1.owl
imports: LMM L2.owl

far topic from
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
label: è un argomento lontano da @it
comment: The opposite to vicinity relation between two topics, e.g. 'star system' (as a Topic) is farTopicFrom 'geology' (as a Topic). Distance is typically established with reference to a threshold on the number of dul:SocialObject(s) that are common to the two topics. Alternatively, it can be established with reference to the a geometrical semantics applied to the TopicSpace(s) that are regions for the Topic(s)
sub property of: farFrom
range: Topic
domain: Topic
sub property of: relatedMeaning

ha concetto centrale {@it}
type: ObjectProperty
label: has core concept
range: Concept
sub property of: isCharacterizedBy
domain: Topic
inverse of: è concetto centrale di {it}
sub property of: relatedMeaning

ha argomento più specifico {it}
type: ObjectProperty
type: TransitiveProperty
label: has subtopic
comment: The relation between two instances of a Topic, in terms of their cultural coverage. For example, Sport hasSubTopic Football. It can be used widely to talk about document annotations, subject directories, etc. The counterpart of this relation for TopicSpace(s) is simply dul:hasPart
sub property of: hasPart
range: Topic
domain: Topic
sub property of: relatedMeaning

ha argomento {it}
type: ObjectProperty
label: has topic
label: ha argomento @it
comment: The relation between ay Entity - but usually any dul:SocialObject (usually a document) - and a Topic (subject, argument, domain, theme, subject area, etc.). It can be used widely to talk about document annotations, subject directories, etc. The range is here relaxed to any SocialObject, in order to allow alignment of deviant uses of topic or subject relations for 'concepts' (e.g. in thesauri), and other things that are mixed up with the notion of Topic. This move makes the hasTopic relation very general, and introduces a particular semiotic relation, different from dul:expresses, lmm1:denotes, and lmm1:isInterpretationOf: this is a relation between any two social objects, in which the first is (or is related to) some lmm1:Meaning that dul:isMemberOf a dul:Collection (a Topic). The second social object can even be another member of that Topic. Hence, in the general case, we could expect a relation between two social objects that are associated because they are members of a common Topic. For example, consider the following cases: (1) A biography of Brigitte Bardot (dul:InformationObject) ontopic:hasTopic 'star system' (Topic) (2) The concept of 'starlet' (dul:Concept) hasTopic 'cinema' (Topic) (3) A biography of Claude Chabrol (dul:InformationObject) ontopic:hasTopic 'Nouvelle Vague' (Topic)
domain: Entity
range: SocialObject
inverse of: is topic of
sub property of: hasInterpretation

includes topic
type: ObjectProperty
label: include l'argomento @it
comment: A relation between topic assignments and topics.
sub property of: includesObject
range: Topic
domain: Topic assignment

è concetto centrale di {it}
type: ObjectProperty
label: is core concept for
comment: A Concept is a core concept for a Topic when it classifies a set of entities that are references of some relevant information objects that have that Topic. For example, Saxophone (as a Concept) isCoreConceptFor Saxophones (as a Topic).
domain: Concept
sub property of: characterizes
range: Topic
sub property of: relatedMeaning

è argomento più specifico di {it}
type: ObjectProperty
type: TransitiveProperty
label: is sub topic of
comment: The relation between two Topic(s), in terms of their cultural coverage. For example, Football isSubTopicOf Sport. It can be used widely to talk about document annotations, subject directories, etc. The counterpart of this relation for TopicSpace(s) is simply dul:isPartOf
sub property of: isPartOf
range: Topic
domain: Topic
inverse of: ha argomento più specifico {it}
sub property of: relatedMeaning

is topic included in
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: isObjectIncludedIn
domain: Topic
range: Topic assignment
inverse of: includes topic

is topic of
type: ObjectProperty
label: è argomento di @it
comment: The relation between any Entity, and a Topic (subject, argument, domain, theme, subject area, etc.). It can be used widely to talk about document annotations, subject directories, etc. The range is here relaxed to any SocialObject, in order to allow alignment of deviant uses of topic or subject relations for 'concepts' (e.g. in thesauri), and other things that are mixed up with the notion of Topic.
domain: Entity
range: SocialObject
sub property of: isInterpretationOf

near topic to
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
label: è un argomento vicino a @it
comment: The vicinity relation between two topics, e.g. 'star system' (as a Topic) is nearTopicTo 'cinema' (as a Topic). Vicinity is typically established with reference to a threshold on the number of dul:SocialObject(s) that are common to the two Topic(s), or based on a geometrical semantics applied to the TopicSpace(s) that are regions for the two Topic(s).
sub property of: nearTo
range: Topic
domain: Topic
sub property of: relatedMeaning

Subject
type: Class
subclass of: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: is topic of
  cardinality: 1
comment: Specific Topic(s) for e.g. a conversation, an article, a document, etc. E.g. wikipedia article names can be considered Subject(s).

Subject directory
type: Class
label: Catalogo di argomenti @it
subclass of: KOS
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: hasComponent
  all values from: Topic
comment: A collection of tags or metadata that have no formal semantics, and are typically used sparsely to annotate texts, images, bookmarks, etc.

Subject space
type: Class
label: Soggetto @it
subclass of: Region
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isPartOf
  some values from: Topic space
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isRegionFor
  some values from: SocialObject
comment: Any atomic Region in a TopicSpace that is used to localize a dul:SocialObject that hasTopic a Topic that dul:hasRegion that TopicSpace. In Welty's formal ontology of subjects, it is assumed as a point. The reason why we do not assume subjects as points is the relativity of atomicity: although the intuition goes to atomicity, one cannot exclude that subjects can have other subjects as parts; for example, consider the subject of an article on a football match: we might conceive a subject of a paragraph within that article that is about a penalty occurred during the football match.

Topic
type: Class
label: Argomento @it
equivalent class: Restriction
  on property: is topic of
  min cardinality: 1
subclass of: Collection
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: hasSchema
  some values from: Subject directory
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: overlaps
  all values from: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: ha argomento più specifico {it}
  all values from: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: è argomento più specifico di {it}
  all values from: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isExpressedBy
  some values from: Term
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: is topic of
  all values from: SocialObject
comment: A topic, or subject, argument, domain, theme, subject area, etc. Topics have a controversial intuition across common sense, document management systems, knowledge organization systems, etc. Here we conceptualise a semiotic notion of iol:Topic as 'a (usually potential) dul:Collection of dul:SocialObject(s). For example, 'music' is a topic constituted by the set of social objects that are associated with music-related entities. Such social objects can be information objects (texts, documents, words, images) about music-related entities, concepts classifying music-related entities, descriptions of musical theories and systems, etc. The relation between social objects and topics is called here 'hasTopic', and is a rdfs:subPropertyOf dul:isMemberOf Specific topics for e.g. a conversation or an article (therefore, closer to the notion of 'title' or 'entry') are called Subject(s). There is an interesting duality of topics: they are commonly interpreted as areas of shared knowledge within a Community (therefore as collections of social objects). On the other hand, existing directories and thesauri use 'topic' (or 'subject') more restrictively, as a relation between a document and a concept. There is a sense of 'meaning' that can be reduced to the one given here to Topic (cf. the comment at the property dul:expresses), but in general there seems to be enough room to distinguish carefully between concepts and topics. For example, thesauri do not usually distinguish when their 'concepts' (cf. skos:Concept) are actually intended as concepts (in the sense of dul:Concept) and when they are intended as topics. The distinction is clear when you compare these two sample sentences: 'the football topic is part of the sport topic' vs. 'the concept of football is part of the concept of sport'. While the first is perfectly acceptable, the second is counterintuitive and even possibly wrong. This effect is due to the fact that concepts are 'intensional' notions and are not intended as area…

Topic assignment
type: Class
subclass of: LinguisticAct
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isSettingFor
  some values from: SocialObject
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: includesObject
  some values from: Subject directory
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: includes topic
  all values from: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: includes topic
  some values from: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: includesAgent
  some values from: Agent
comment: A topic assignment is a iol:LinguisticAct in which an dul:Agent assigns a Topic to a document, or in general to any dul:SocialObject. What is the semiotic act involved in such an assignment? Differently from tagging, which 'selects' one of the references of a document, a topic actually points to an 'area of knowledge', which can be represented as a dul:Collection of dul:SocialObject(s) (e.g. of documents, concepts, meanings, etc.). A Topic is necessarily expressed by a iol:LinguisticObject. Topics have a typical topology, by which they can be distant, close, overlapping, etc., and a mereology, by which they can be part of others. This also means that 'areas of knowledge' can be part of others, can overlap, etc., so originating clusters of areas and terms that denote them. The subcollection of terms populating a Topic is called here TopicSignature

Topic signature
type: Class
subclass of: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: is topic of
  some values from: Expression
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isPartOf
  some values from: Topic
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: is topic of
  all values from: Expression
comment: The collection of lmm1:Expression(s) that are in a Topic; for example, the topic signatures from sensecorpus, the entries from Roget's, etc.

Topic space
type: Class
label: Spazio di argomenti @it
subclass of: Region
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isRegionFor
  some values from: Topic
comment: Any Region in a dimensional space that is used to localize a Topic. Its atomic parts are called Subject(s). Mereotopological relations: dul:hasPart, dul:overlaps, can be simply reused within and between TopicSpace(s). This class is mostly similar to the Topic class in Welty's formal ontology of subjects.