]> COSMO ontology, Version 0.65-969. Last edit 20120109 by Patrick Cassidy Confirmed LDOCE mappings to end of Longman 'B' words. rev 849 is modularized Has 19 top-level classes under 'Thing' Uses elements of the OpenCyc OWL version 0.78, SUMO, BFO and DOLCE ontologies, as well as elements created specifically for COSMO. Parts of COSMO were derived from or closely aligned with elements of other public ontologies such as OpenCyc, SUMO, and BFO,in order to ease the translation of COSMO ontologies to those other structures, but the conceptual structure of COSMO (hierarchy and relations) is too different from those other ontologies to allow simplistic automatic translation; it is anticipated that translation will be possible, but will require 'bridging axioms' to convert the terms and syntax of COSMO to those of any other ontology, and vice-versa. The meanings of the COSMO elements must be interpreted only from the structure of the COSMO ontology and from the full COSMO documentation. According to the documentation of those other ontologies, they are freely usable by the public, though they remain copyrighted by their originators (more detail below). No copyright restrictions are attached to materials added in the COSMO project, therefore the only copyright restrictions for use of this ontology are those placed by the developers of the OpenCyc, SUMO, and BFO on parts derived directly from those works. Those derived parts will include some of the labels, and parts of the documentation. Relation of COSMO to other ontologies: The COSMO ontology has a structure and basic viewpoint that differs in some significant parts from that of the ontologies from which it has derived materials, and the main parts of the hierarchical structure and relations are not significantly derived from any of the referenced ontologies. Most basically, the representations were intended to adhere as closely as possible to linguistic intuitions about the meaning and usage of English terms, while specifying the meanings in a logically precise manner. Every element added to COSMO is individually evaluated for its utility and validity within the conceptual structure of the COSMO ontology, and is not derived or adopted solely or mainly on the basis of the appearance of a similar concept in another ontology. Certain individual subtype relations are similar to those in OpenCyc or SUMO; but because the basic hierarchical structure of COSMO differs from the other ontologies, logical inference using these relations will arrive at conclusions that cannot be aligned directly with either OpenCyc or SUMO. No simplistic mapping between COSMO and these other ontologies is likely to enable accurate inference. The documentation derived from OpenCyc and SUMO is provided as a means to reference similar concepts in those other ontologies, and to explain similarities and differences, for the convenience of those who are familiar with those ontologies. Contents derived from OpenCyc and SUMO are copyrighted and made freely available for public use under the terms found in the documentation for those works (see below). Materials added specifically for the COSMO project are not copyrighted. The contents derived from SUMO are copyrighted by the IEEE and made freely available for public use. For more detail see: see http://www.ontologyportal.org A description of the SUMO project can be found in: Niles, I., and Pease, A. 2001. Towards a Standard Upper Ontology. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS-2001), Chris Welty and Barry Smith, eds, Ogunquit, Maine, October 17-19, 2001. The Contents of the OpenCyc OWL version used in this project are found at: http://www.cyc.com/2004/06/04/cyc OpenCyc materials are copyrighted and licensed for free public use under the GNU 'LGPL' license. The OpenCyc documentation reads: ************ OpenCyc copyright notice ****************** Copyright Information OpenCyc Knowledge Base Copyright 2001-2004 Cycorp, Inc., Austin, TX, USA. All rights reserved. OpenCyc Knowledge Server Copyright 2001-2004 Cycorp, Inc., Austin, TX, USA. All rights reserved. Other copyrights may be found in various files. The OpenCyc Knowledge Base The OpenCyc Knowledge Base consists of code, written in the declarative language CycL, that represents or supports the representation of facts and rules pertaining to consensus reality. OpenCyc is licensed using the GNU Lesser General Public License, whose text can also be found on this volume. The OpenCyc CycL code base is the "library" referred to in the LGPL license. The terms of this license equally apply to renamings and other logically equivalent reformulations of the Knowledge Base (or portions thereof) in any natural or formal language. See http://www.opencyc.org for more information. ************ OpenCyc copyright notice ****************** Definitions described as coming from the 'Random House Webster' (RHW) refer to the Electronic Dictionary 'Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary' on CD (2002) from Random House, Inc. and Multimedia 2000 Inc.(a paperback version is still available at: http://www.randomhouse.com/category/reference/) Some of the entries have annotation references to WordNet ('wordnet' and 'wnsense' relations). The WordNet version referenced is WordNet 2.1 (see http://wordnet.princeton.edu/). Because the WordNet hierarchy differs from that of COSMO, these pointers are only informative, and may not be useful for accurate automatic conversion of WordNet sense tags (synsets) to the corresponding senses in COSMO, but at least *part* of those WordNet word senses that are referenced will correspond to the intended meaning of the COSMO ontology element, and those words will, in some context, refer to the intended COSMO sense. InheritableType is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class which is used to identify those metatypes which, when specified as the parent Type for some class (Type) in the ontology, will also by implication be the parent Type for all subtypes of any Type explicitly designated as an instance of any subtype of 'InheritableType'. This is a primitive mechanism to permit translation of this ontology among various formats, while permitting the use of reasoning engines which require that arguments to relations, if restricted as to Type, be instances of some specified Type. There are some ontologies, such as SUMO, using first-order logic, which permit one to specify that an argument to a relation must be a *subtype* of some Type in the ontology, rather than an *instance* of some Type. OWL and some other reasoning engines do not permit that kind of restriction. For convenience, to allow this ontology to be used in multiple reasoning engines and to be automatically translated into multiple formats, this metatype is provided and so that one can avoid having to specify the metatype instance of every Type that is to be used as an argument to a relation. When using this ontology in an inference engine that requires explicit types, it will be necessary to add the InheritableType as a Type of each subtype of any Type that is specified to be an instance of such an inheritable type. That addition will have to be one in a preprocessing stage before using that inference engine. An axiom may be added to an ontology using FOL to specify that all subtypes of a Type ?T that is an instance of an InheritableType ?MT will also be instances of that InheritableType: (=> (and (isanInstanceOf ?T ?MT) (isaSubclassOf ?MT InheritableType)) (forall (?ST) (=> (isaSubclassOf ?ST ?T) (isanInstanceOf ?ST ?MT)))) This axiom will permit the ontologist to avoid specifying the metatype for every subtype of the root type of that Type tree, in those ontology implementations that can use FOL. 'LogicalFunctionType' is a metaclass used to signal that a particular type (class) represents a concept that needs some functional procedure to proeprly represent. This is similar in use to the type 'LogicalFunction', but it is used to label types rather than instances. LogicalFunctions in COSMO are ontology elements that are either vague or context-dependent, and are use to represent interpretations of information that is specified with vague or context-dependent terms. Where possible, the LogicalFunction may be implemented by a procedure that attempts to narrow the range of meanings, but if that is not possible, the default vague meanings (being a set of possible meanings) is used in the representation. RoleType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of Role as their argument. 'PretendingRoleType' is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of PretendingRole as their argument. This may be used as the type for subclasses of 'DramaticRole' 'QuantifierType' is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of Quantifier as their argument. AttributeValueType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of AttributeValue as their argument. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Difference as one of their arguments.. QualitativeAttributeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for taste attributes and an argument restriction for some relations on QualitativeAttributeValues This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. QuantitativeAttributeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for QuantitativeAttributes (length, mass), and an argument restriction for various relations on AttributeType types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. IntensiveAttributeValueType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of IntensiveAttributeValue as their argument. @ToDo: values should be disjoint with PertainingAttributeValues,but as yet (r915) no systematic search to add type to PertainingAttributeValues. PertainingAttributeValueType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of PertainingAttributeValue as their argument. @ToDo: values should be disjoint with PertainingAttributeValues,but as yet (r915) ,but as no systematic search to add type to PertainingAttributeValues. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Event as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Event as one of their arguments. This is used specifically for the restriction on 'InsuranceAgreement'. Each instance of InsuredEventType is a type of Event that commonly is insured against in some InsuranceAgreement. Many kinds of Events *can* in principle be insured against, but this metatype is for those types of Events that *commonly* are insured against, or actually *have been* insured against, in some aplication that uses this ontology. ObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for objects, whether abstract or physical, and an argument restriction for various relations on Object types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. Each 'GrammarType' is a Grammar for some Language. Each 'VocabularyType' is a 'Vocabulary' for some Language. 'AccountType' is a metatype which is a specialization of 'ObjectType'; it can serve as type for objects, whether abstract or physical, and an argument restriction for various relations on Object types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. 'TimeIntervalType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for TimeIntervals, and can and an argument restriction for various relations on TimeInterval types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. PhysicalObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical objects and an argument restriction for various relations on Physical Object types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. RuleType is a metatype which is a specialization of 'ObjectType' that can serve as type for Rules (laws, theories) and an argument restriction for various relations on Rule types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. 'PropositionType' is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for Propositions and an argument restriction for various relations on Propositions types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. 'hasPluralForm' relates a COSMO entry to an English noun or word combination that is the closest lexicalized representation of the meaning;this should be used only if there is also a singular form represented.. 'hasPluralForm' relates a COSMO entry to an English noun or word combination that is the closest lexicalized representation of the meaning. Other forms such as plurals and infiinitives and past tenses are represented by other AnnotationProperty's. This is used only occasionally. Globally unique identifier, fromOpenCyc 0.78. NOTE that this is a formatted string having 32 alphanumberic characters with embedded hyphens, though it is represented (temporarily) as a simple string here. Another form of 'unique identifier' has 16 characters, and is represented in COSMO as an AbstractString which is a subtype of Identifier. See 'UniqueIdentifier16' Globally Unique ID Points to the Chinese character string (Mandarin, traditional characters) closest in meaning to the intended meaning of the element. See also 'chins' (simplified characters) and 'chinp' (pinyin) for the equivalent simplified and Pininy representations. Chinese-Traditional Points to the Chinese character string (Mandarin, simplifies characters) closest in meaning to the intended meaning of the element. See also 'chint' (traditional characters) and 'chinp' (pinyin) for the equivalent simplified and Pininy representations. Chinese-Simplified Points to the Pinyin representation of the Chinese character string closest in meaning to the intended meaning of the element. See also 'chins' (simplified characters) and 'chint' (traditional characters) for the equivalent simplified and traditional character representations. Chinese-Pinyin Each class of a ColorAttribute forms a region with more specific classes of ColorAttribute forming subregions.. SubstanceType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical substances and an argument restriction for the hasComponentSubstance relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. NOTE: as of rev929, Protege 4 infers individual substances to be subtypes of 'SubstanceType' - why? Need to track that down: @ToDo! (see 'Food' - not a subtype.) The restriction on hasGrainDiameter for SubstanceTypes should require subclasses rather than instances of LengthMeasure - instances may have to be created as a workaround. ElementType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical substances and an argument restriction for the relations on chemical elements. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. MetalType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for Metals and an argument restriction for the relations on Metals. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Context as one of their arguments. IT can also be used for types for which namespace prefixes would be convenient to label the instances, such as 'AtomicSymbol'.. A collection of collections and a specialization of #$ChemicalSubstanceType. Each instance of #$ChemicalCompoundTypeByChemicalSpecies is a specialization of #$PartiallyTangible whose instances are defined _only_ by their chemical composition - not by their physical state or any other property. Instances of #$ChemicalCompoundTypeByChemicalSpecies are collections whose instances are completely uniform with each other in terms of chemical structure, e.g., #$Water, #$Caffeine, and #$IronOxide. This collection does not include the chemical elements - such as #$Carbon and #$Oxygen, since there can be multiple types that molecules can be formed out of a single element, e.g. O2 and #$Ozone. Use the broader collection, #$ChemicalSubstanceType, for substances which have a general chemical specification, that is, whose instances do not have exactly the same chemical composition but fall within certain specifications, e.g., #$DNAStuff. bd40a83e-da13-41d6-9955-dc363ad8ec02 VitalityAttributeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for attributes specifyuing vitality (alive, dead) and an argument restriction for some relations on QualitativeAttributes. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. AttributeTypeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for AttributeTypes (length, mass), and an argument restriction for various relations on AttributeType types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Agent as one of their arguments. All Organisms, plant, animal, microorganism, are of AgentType. MeasurableQuantityType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for MeasurableQuantities, whether abstract or physical, and an argument restriction for various relations on MeasurableQuantity types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. ShapeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for shape attributes and an argument restriction for the hasShape relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. NOTE: as of v0.50, both shape attributes and specifically shaped objects can be instances of ShapeType. @ToDo - this should probably be differentiated. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of Pattern as one of their arguments. OrganismObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for LifeForms (including LifeForms that are not true Organisms) and an argument restriction for various relations on specific types of organisms. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. DeviceType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for Devices and an argument restriction for various relations on specific types of Devices. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. NOTE that we allow instances of DeviceType to be considered as a type of agent. FastenerType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for Fasteners and an argument restriction for various relations on specific Fasteners. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. NOTE that we allow instances of DeviceType to be considered as a type of agent. PersonType is a metatype which is a specialization of OrganismType that can serve as type for a Person in its aspect as an animal, rather than a Role, and an argument restriction for various relations on people. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. RoleType is a metaclass that is a subclass of both 'PersonType' and 'RoleType'. It is used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of HumanRole as their argument. PlantType is a metatype which is a specialization of OrganismType that can serve as type for a Plant. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. AnimalType is a metatype which is a specialization of OrganismType that can serve as type for an Animal. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. ActionType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of Action as their argument. COSMO note: this metatype has not been used up to v0.54. It includes all actions that need some kind of training beyond mere observation and repetition. Things that need years of training are represented as 'SkilledActivityType'. Inn Chinese, there is a difference in the words used to say one 'knows' how to do somnething, if that thing is learned or not learned (like knowing a person). This seems to be a fundamental and intuitive difference. AN examole is knowing how to speak Chinese. Cyc: This is the collection of activities which must first be learned before they can be performed - i.e., before any role which is a specPred of #$doneBy can be played. be6f173a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO note: this metatype has not been used up to v0.54. It may be used to help classify actions that require years of training. This differs from the Cyc interpretation. Cyc: This is the collection of collections of activities which require some specialized skill to perform--i.e., to play any role which is a specPred of #$doneBy. So, all skilled activities are learned, but not all learned activities are skilled. For instance, #$WalkingOnTwoLegs is an instance of #$LearnedActivityType but not an instance of #$SkilledActivityType. Since every normal person learns to walk, it requires no special skill. In contrast, #$Juggling is an instance of #$SkilledActivityType, for most people do not know how to juggle. bdb56b97-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 CommunicationType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of Communication as their argument. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Feeling as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Sign as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of SystemCondition as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of AilmentCondition as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of ValuableThing as one of their arguments.. OrganizationType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of Organization as their argument. A collection of three disjoint collections, #$OrganizationWithBusinessCustomers, #$OrganizationWithIndividualCustomers, and #$OrganizationWithoutCustomers. The #$Organizations that are instances of the collections which are instances of #$OrganizationByClients are distinguished by the types of customers they serve or by their lack of customers (customers being used here in the sense of #$customers). c0861d7f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 TendencyType is a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Tendency as one of their arguments. This metaclass is of importance in predicting behaviors over time, and may require probability assignments; therefore is is considered distinct and not a subtype of 'QualitativeAttributeType'.. CapabilityType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of Capability as their argument. LimitationType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of Limitation as their argument. TransportationDeviceType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations involving TransportationDevices. MeasureType is a metatype which is a specialization of rdfs:Class that can serve as type for measures and an argument restriction for relations concerning types of measure (Length, Temperature, Color). MeasureType instances may be either AttributeTypes or AttributeValues. It may be better to distingish the two, but as of v. 0.46, the same metaclass is used for the two different aspects of quantitative attributes. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. HabitatType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for regions or physical areas with particular characteristics, and can serve as an argument restriction for the relation 'hasTypicalHabitat' OrganismTypes. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. LifeStageType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that pertain to organisms at particular stages of their life cycle. Instances of 'LifeStageType' are types which may represent time periods (the intervals of time during which an organism is in a specific stage), **or** the organism in that stage. NOTE: this is an unusual usage of metatypes; the instances may be a subtype of one of two disjoint types. (Here, a TimeInterval may implicitly play a 'Role'. @ToDo - can this lead to problems?). The collection of collections of things that are useful in nature. c0c73787-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$ChemicalCompoundTypeByChemicalSpecies. Instances of #$LigandType are collections whose instances are substances capable of surrounding and bonding to a central metal ion, forming a metal complex (or simply complex). In forming a complex, the ligands are considered to coordinate to the metal. 3bc47b54-3937-41d7-9033-bdfc2024a247 OccupationalRoleType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that pertain to Types describing people in occupational roles, such as 'Nurse', 'Firefighter'.. CoveringType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical objects that are subtypes of 'Covering-Object', and an argument restriction for various relations on CoveringObject types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. ArtifactObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for ArtifactObjects and an argument restriction for various relations on ArtifactObject types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. ContainerType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for containers and an argument restriction for various relations on container types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. PlantPartType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for plant parts and an argument restriction for various relations on parts of plants. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. Each instance of 'ServiceType' is a type that represents a service that some perosn performs for another, often for pay. A Service does not have to be performed for pay every time, but must be performed for pay in some cases. TopicType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on fields of knowledge, whether formal or informal. This type allows assertions about a whole field, as in the relation 'isKnowledgeableAbout'. VolumeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for volume attributes. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of a transitive Event (an Event that has a 'patient' role, something acted on) as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of FunctionalProcess as one of their arguments.. COSMO: a metatype for flowering trees. Cyc: Not itself a species, but a set of species encompassing those that are angiosperms. bd588f16-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A collection of collections and a specialization of #$OrganismClassificationType (q.v.). Instances of #$BiologicalTaxon correspond to ranked categories accepted by biologists for the classification of organisms according to their suspected evolutionary relationships. Such categories change as biologists learn more about the organisms involved and determine that existing classifications are more or less useful. They include all levels of taxons. Specializations of #$BiologicalTaxon include #$BiologicalOrder and #$BiologicalSpecies; instances include #$Marsupial and #$Ape. See also #$BiologicalTaxonType. bd58e2e8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 The collection of biological taxonomic subdivisions (see #$BiologicalTaxon) created below #$BiologicalFamily and above #$BiologicalSpecies. Sometimes, hybrids are possible between different instances of #$BiologicalSpecies that belong to the same #$BiologicalGenus. bd589a9f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$BiologicalTaxon whose instances are more restrictive than those of #$BiologicalSpecies. Each instance of #$BiologicalSubspecies is a specialization of some instance of #$BiologicalSpecies. Members of different subspecies of the same species can produce fertile offspring by interbreeding; but such offspring are not members of either of the parental subspecies, although they are members of the common species. All instances of a given biological subspecies have significant traits or collections of traits in common that are not shared by all other members of the subsuming species. A #$BiologicalSubspecies is formed by inbreeding of a restricted group of members of the same species. This can happen naturally through geographic isolation or intentionally through controlled reproduction to create, for example, dog breeds or crop strains. c0b6222b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A GrammaticalType is any structure (word, phrase, phoneme, morpheme) in a NaturalLanguage that, in combination with other structures constitues the grammar of the language, as represented in some grammatical theory of the language. Examples would be 'Subject', 'Verb', 'Object', 'VerbPhrase', etc. a BiologicalSubspecies that is or maintained by human breeding activities. See 'Breeding'. This corresponds to sense 13 of 'breed' in the random House Webster: 13. Genetics. a relatively homogenous group of animals within a species, developed and maintained by humans. This should be a subtype of 'variety' as used in the biological classification sense, but the owl:class (Types) and rdfs:class (Metatypes) hierarchy needs to be kept apart for clarity. Se 'Type' and 'Sort' for more detail on which COSMO type represents which sort of category. Corresponds to noun sense 2 of 'breed' and sense 5 of 'strain' in WordNet: 2. (1) breed, strain, stock - (a special variety of domesticated animals within a species; 'he experimented on a particular breed of white rats'; 'he created a new strain of sheep') breed breed breed2n strain strain5n The collection of biological taxonomic subdivisions below #$BiologicalOrder (or #$BiologicalSuborder) and above #$BiologicalGenus. Especially important in Botanical classification. bd58cb2c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of PhysiologicalCondition as one of their arguments. NOTE that illness (sickness, disease, ailment) is a subtype of PhysiologicalCondition, and this metatype can be used for relations on types of illness. NOTE that a 'PhysiologicalConditionType' is a subtype of 'ActionType' because it is 'performed' by an Agent, which is an Organism. A specialization of #$FirstOrderCollection (q.v.) whose instances are collections of #$Events. Each instance of #$RepeatedEventType is a collection of events whose instances tend to come in series or to occur at more or less regular intervals. These series or recurrences might be the result of natural phenomena (e.g. the spoutings of Old Faithful), human convention (e.g. the occurrence of #$BaseballInnings within a given game), or a combination of both (e.g. the annual celebration of Oktoberfest). An important specialization of this collection is #$RegularlyRepeatedEventType. See also #$IterativeEvent and #$IterativeEventType. bd5900b9-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$RepeatedEventType (q.v.). Each instance of #$RegularlyRepeatedEventType is a collection of events whose instances typically occur along with other instances of the same event-type at more or less regular intervals. These regular occurrences might be the result of natural phenomena (e.g. the sunrise), human convention (e.g. the execution of a dance step within a given dancing event), or a combination of both (e.g. the annual celebration of Oktoberfest). Other examples of #$RegularlyRepeatedEventType are #$OlympicGames, #$AcademicTerm, and #$TakingABreath. See also #$IterativeEvent and #$IterativeEventType. bd590072-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A LexicalType is any structure (word, phrase, phoneme, morpheme) in a NaturalLanguage that, has a distinctie pattern of letters in its alphabetical representation. An example would be an Abbreviation. BiologicalSpecies is a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of biological species as one of their arguments. Cyc: An instance of #$BiologicalTaxonType. Each instance of #$BiologicalSpecies is the most general taxon from which two breeding organisms of appropriate sexes can conceivably produce fertile offspring, or, in the case of asexual reproduction, is conventionally defined. Members of different species of animals cannot produce fertile offspring by interbreeding. If there are only two breeds of a given species and one breed becomes extinct, the second breed by virtue of that fact becomes an instance of #$BiologicalSpecies - since the only organisms instances can breed with to produce fertile offspring are, at that point, members of that collection. An instance of #$BiologicalSpecies has members who all have significant traits in common, and members of each biological species have other members as parents. Exceptions occur when a species is conventionally defined to start since parenthood could conceivably be traced back billions of years, yet new species came into existence. In biological taxonomy, related species are grouped into a particular instance of #$BiologicalGenus. Some genera have only a single species, but they remain different taxons. SUMO: The Class of all biological species, i.e. the class of all classes of Organism whose instances can interbreed. Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'species' in WordNet: 1. (27) species - ((biology) taxonomic group whose members can interbreed) bd58caeb-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO note: in COSMO, 'EndangeredSpecies' is a metatype whose instances are BiologicalSpecies whose survival as a species is at risk. SUMO: EndangeredSpecies is the subclass of Organism that includes plants and animals that are in danger of extinction from destruction of individuals or of habitat. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. RegionType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for regions, and an argument restriction for various relations on Region types. CYC also uses a metaclass class called 'RegionType', with broad usage: A collection of collections. Each instance of #$RegionType is a subcollection of #$SpatialThing-Localized each of whose instances is an identifiable subregion of some object, but not itself an independent object. Instances of #$RegionType include #$PalmOfHand, #$Doorway, #$Wall-GenericBarrier, #$WorkSurface, and #$Handle. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. MeasuringDeviceType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for MeasuringDevices, and an argument restriction for various relations on MeasuringDevice types. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. SpecificationType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for specifications (plays, plans, games) and an argument restriction for the isAnExecutionOf relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. SportType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for specifications of sports (games) and an argument restriction for the isAnExecutionOf relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. GameType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for games and an argument restriction for the isAnExecutionOf relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. PharmaceuticalType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that pertain to more or less well-defined chemical substances that are used officially (in some society) as a medicine.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of FacialHair as one of their arguments.. OccupationType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that pertain to Occupations, such as 'isTheOccupationOfa' and 'practicesOccupation'. NOTE that this must not be used as the Type of people who have ocupations. For that, use 'OccupationalRoleType'. Each instance of MoneyTenderType denotes a form in which some quantity of Money may be represented. A collection of collections. Each instance of #$MoneyTenderType is a collection of objects of a type commonly offered in payment for goods, services, fees, wage-work, and so on. Notable instances of #$MoneyTenderType include #$Currency, #$CreditCard, and #$Check-TenderObject. bd58d8e4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 The collection of biological taxonomic subdivisions more specific than #$BiologicalClass but more general than #$BiologicalOrder. bd58cba7-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 'SolidSubstanceType' is used to express some relations between sone subtypes of 'SolidSubstance' and other entities.. SubstanceShapeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical substances in a particular shape 'SubstanceInaSpecificShape' and an argument restriction for the isaFormOfSubstance relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. TasteType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for taste attributes and an argument restriction for the hasTaste relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. LocationMeasureType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical substances and an argument restriction for the hasLocation relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. MoleculeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for classes of individual physical molecules and an argument restriction for the isaMoleculeOfSubstance relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. EmittableObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for EmittableObjects and for wavelike Events, in an argument restriction for the canEmit relation. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations. A metaclass to serve as a Type for Surface texture attributes of physical objects. WireType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for different kinds of wire and an argument restriction for the relations on chemical elements. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. A specialization of #$BiologicalTaxon. Each instance of #$BiologicalOrder is an immediate subdivision of some instance of #$BiologicalClass or #$BiologicalSubclass (qq.v.). Instances of #$BiologicalOrder include #$CarnivoreOrder, #$Monotreme, and #$Primate. bd58e329-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 Each instance of FingerType is a subtype of 'Finger', indicating the specific type of Finger (e.g. 'LeftThumb'). CollectiveNounCategory is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for classes that are labeled as collective nouns in Engolish, such as 'lumber'. A metatype whos instances are the different ranks (levels) at which military personnel are classified for purpose of pay, duty, or authority. The separate service ranks (USNavyRank) are subtypes of this type. Corresponds to part of noun sense 2 of 'rank' in WordNet: 2. (6) rank -- (relative status; "his salary was determined by his rank and seniority") 30f91a14-74b0-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae rank rank rank2n The scale of ranks employed by the United States Navy. This is a collection of attributes that are used with the predicate #$rank-Military. 30f91a14-74b0-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae rank rank rank2n The scale of ranks employed by the United States Air Force. This is a collection of attributes that are used with the predicate #$rank-Military. b77c6604-74b0-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae rank rank rank2n The scale of ranks employed by the United States Army. This is a collection of attributes that are used with the predicate #$rank-Military. a0906ed6-74b0-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae rank rank rank2n The scale of ranks employed by the United States Marine Corps. This is a collection of attributes that are used with the predicate #$rank-Military. ccf8b4ba-74b0-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae rank rank rank2n a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Illness as one of their arguments. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Infection as one of their arguments. A Device or Process in its Role as an Invention. To refer to a device or process as an invention, one can add the type 'InventionType' to the type (OWL class) and then refer to that type. See 'ThomasAlvaEdison' for an examnple of usage. This is approximately sense 2 of 'invention' in WordNet, however, as a metatype it has no direct connection to any other type 2. (6) invention, innovation - (a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation) invention invention2n BiologicalOrgan is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that pertain to named parts of organisms at particular stages of their life cycle. It is not necessarily an animal body part type - it may be part of a plant. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a type of Location (spatial location) as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a type of TimeInterval (temporal location) as one of their arguments.. a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of Feature as one of their arguments.. A collection of specializations of #$AnimalBodyRegion. Each instance of #$AnimalBodyPartType is a collection of body parts, where the parts in question are differentiated from other body parts according to structure or function. Instances of #$AnimalBodyPartType include #$SpinalColumn, #$Eyelash, #$NervousSystem, #$Urethra, #$Wing-AnimalBodyPart, and #$HeelOfPalm. bd58e7da-9c29-11b19dad-c379636f7270 'ProductType' is a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance of Product (i.e. something for sale) as one of their arguments.. GroupType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical objects and an argument restriction for various relations on types of Groups (not just People, but any type of Group). This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. 'Money' is treated in COSMO as a GenericSubstance, and specific quantities of money are the objects that consist of Money. MoneyType is a metatype that can be used as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype of Money as one of their arguments. Instances of MoneyType can be abstract or physical. EnergyType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for types of Energy and an argument restriction for the isaSourceOf relation. In COSMO Energy is viewed as a form of Substance, and a Quantity of energy would be made up of Energy; relativistically, a quantitiy of Energy is equivalent to some Mass (i.e. equivalent to a PhysicalObject). Thus Energy behaves somewhat like a PhysicalSubstance, but to avoid unnecessary complications, it is not classified as a PhysicalSubstance, but as a GnericSubstance. This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. FoodType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for different kinds of Food (a Substance). This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. 'SoupComponentType' is a specialized metatype which that has as its instances only those solid Foods (substances) that are commonly added to Soup. This tactic is required because subtances are represented as types, and to specify a union as a means of repressenting an 'A or B' object does not work. A messy OWL workaround. FoodType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for different kinds of FoodObject (a PhysicalObject). This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments. a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations that take subclasses of ChemicallyDefinedSubstance as their argument. Cyc: A collection of collections and a specialization of #$TangibleStuffCompositionType. Each instance of #$ChemicalSubstanceType is a specialization of #$PartiallyTangible whose instances are defined _only_ by their chemical composition - not by their physical state or any other property. Instances of #$ChemicalSubstanceType can be of two varieties: (1) Collections whose instances are completely uniform with each other in terms of chemical composition; this includes (a) the chemical elements - such as #$Carbon, #$Oxygen, and #$Hydrogen - which are instances of #$ElementStuffTypeByNumberOfProtons (thus, the latter is a specialization of #$ChemicalSubstanceType), and (b) chemical compounds constituted of more than one substance chemically bonded, e.g., #$Water, #$Caffeine, and #$IronOxide, which are instances of #$ChemicalCompoundTypeByChemicalSpecies (2) Substances which have a general chemical specification, that is, whose instances do not have exactly the same chemical composition but fall within certain specifications, e.g., #$DNAStuff. Note that collections that are _not_ instances of #$ChemicalSubstanceType include collections of substances which have some component which is of overriding significance in some context, so that in everyday language such substances are frequently referred to by the name of their important component (e.g., penicillin applied to a tablet containing penicillin), but which have significant admixtures of other substances. Thus, #$Penicillin is an instance of #$ChemicalSubstanceType, but the collection of tablets containing penicillin and including other ingredients is not. Also, specializations of #$Mixture, such as #$Lemonade, are _not_ instances of #$ChemicalSubstanceType, because mixtures are determined by their physical state rather than solely by their chemical composition. bd58cd95-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO note: used for both substances and Objects. @ToDo (v0.50) Probably should be distinguished. Cyc: A collection of collections, and a specialization of #$ManufacturedGoodsType. Instances of this collection are types of pharmaceutical products that may be prescribed by a medical professional. Note that this includes drugs -- specializations of #$DrugSubstance -- as well as pharmaceutical devices such as #$TestStrip or #$HearingAid-Prescription. #$PrescriptionDrugType and #$OverTheCounterDrugType are among the specializations of this collection. c0fdf171-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 'TimedClassType' is a special metaclass used to allow the assertion, within the OWL format, of time limits on assertion of QualitativeAttributes for things. This special mechanism is used because in COSMO QualitativeAttributes are types (owl:classes), and the 'instances' of QualitativeAttributes cannot be made instances of TimeSlice to allow assertion of time limits on their applicability. To use this, an assertion of a QualitativeAttribute within a time interval requires that a new class representing that attribute in that time interval be created when the time-indexed assertion is made. See 'AliveDuring1943-2008' and 'PatrickCassidy' for an example of use. The class of Synonyms has two uses: (1) When a synonymous term is included as a subtype of Synonym, it allows searching for a Type by more than one term, in the case where the alternative term(s) are also unique in the ontology. For example, where Cyc class names (but not meanings) have been changed, the Cyc term may also be included as a Synonym. We use the isaSynonymOf relation to relate Synonym classes to the class with the base name. (2) when used with the 'hasSynonym' relation, instances of Synonym can specify the context (such as namespace) in which the second term is a synonym of the first, and can indicate the overall frequency with which the term in that context actually has the same meaning as the base term. Since there can be multiple instances of the same synonymous term, it is represented as a datatype String entity. NOTE that instances of Synonym need to have unique id's as their identifiers in the ontology, so it is recommended that the unique ID's be generated by prefixing a namespace to the synonymous term that is pointed to by the 'hasSynonymousTerm' property of the Synonym instance. Thus if some term has the synonym 'process' in the PSL context, the instance of Synonym that specifies that relation can be named, e.g. 'PSL$process'. The general English contexts, where words may be ambiguous, is indicated by the namespace prefix 'engen'. A pointer from a concept to another concept of which it is a synonym. This is a crude method to permit search in Protege for synonyms of terms in the class search window. In v0.3 these synonyms were confined to classes. For other synonyms, use 'hasSynonym'. 'isaTypicalInstanceOf' points from an instance of a type (Class) to that type itself. This relation is used to assert that the properties of the instance are those typical of the type. This relation will be particularly useful for reasoning about prototypes in FOL versions of COSMO. For example, if a particular type typically has certain types of parts: e.g. 2 legs and 2 arms for a person, then asserting that a particular ?Person isaTypicalInstanceOf 'Person' will imply that that ?Person has 2 arms and 2 legs. The relations that use 'typically' will asociate with this relation to allow certain inferences that might otherwise require a specialized default reasoner. Also, the 'hasPartCardinality' relation is interpreted as implying typical properties, and those part cardinalities thus asserted shold hold for any instance that is asserted to be a typical instance with this relation. NOTE: as with many other relations, this relation can only be properly interpreted as true in a particular context, time, and place. The mechanisms for assuring that context is taken into account are not properly elaborated in the OWL version of COSMO. NOTE: this relation is not functional; it is possible to be a typical instance of more than one type. The 'typicality' does not propagate up or down the class hierarchy. To be a typical instance of one type does *not* imply that an individual is a typical instance of a parent type or of a subtype. A pointer to an English word of which the given element represents at least one sense. This is used when there should be some lexical reference, but it is not in eother WordNet or LDOCE defining vocabulary. Longman vocabulary word A pointer to the word in the LDOCE (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) defining vocabulary which the given element represents. Since the LDOCE words can be polysemous, and the nominalized forms of verbs in the COSMO will not be identical to verb meanings, this is not intended as a one-to one mapping, but in many cases the occurrence of a word in a text will be related to the COSMO concept representation by a more or less complex transformation. Longman vocabulary word Points to an English language word that is used to refer to the ontology element. 'syn-en' points to a string in the English language that may represent the concept related by this relation, in some English text in some context. This relation can be used to point to an English word used to refer to a concept; it is particularly useful when there are no words from Longman or senses from the WordNet that label the specific concept sense intended. English synonym A pointer to the synset in WordNet 2.1 which the given element represents. The pointer will in fact be to one of the words in the synset, and the sense number of that word in that synset will be found with the 'wnsense' relation. This pointer does not include the offset number. This can be used with a SPARQL query to find all of the ontology elements that correspond to senses for a given word. Wordnet vocabulary word A pointer to the sense number (and POS) in WordNet 2.1 which the given element represents. This is only needed if there is more than one WordNet sense for the word labeled by the 'wordnet' relation. The sense number should include the word whose sense number is referenced, since more than one Wordnet word may be used to label a particular concept. The usage is exemplified by these relations on 'Ordering' (omitting the angle brackets to avoid offending the RDF parser): wordnet - order - /wordnet wordnet - command - /wordnet wnsense - order1v /wnsense wnsense - command2v - /wnsense WordNet sense. A pointer to the word in Anna Wierzbicka's 'natural semantic metalanguage' of 60 conceptual primitives that corresponds to the ontology element. NSM word 'comboSymLoj' points to a string that can be used as a 'combining symbol' in the Lojban language (an artificially constructed language expressing ideas in a logically precise form). Other combining symbols in other languages may be used. In English, the base dictionary form is often the combining form, but for many words the root is not the base dictionary form; for words ending in 'y' for example, the plurals are formed by removing the 'y' and adding 'ies' ('party' -> 'parties'). Lojban combining form Objects can be Physical or Abstract or Mental only PhysicalObjects have mass, and that is the defining characteristic of a PhysicalObject in COSMO. All Objects have at least one relation other than the type (isa) relation to some other entity that is not an Object. Almost all objects have an Attribute or AttributeValue. But the relation may be some other relation (e.g. to have a location, a composition, or to have proper parts). Thus a point can have Dimensionality (zero-dimensional), and will have a location, though the location may be in a poorly defined abstract space. For example, a character in an alphabet is an abstract object, which has at least one representation as a shaped physical object, and is an element of an Alphabet. This requirement for an Object to have some relation is not presently (v0.48) formalized in COSMO, as it is not needed for performance, only to clarify the meaning for the human users. 'Object' is a very primitive concept that cannot be defined, but can be comprehended only by the way this concept interacts with other concepts, and by its subclasses and instances. This Type is useful as an umbrella Type for various purposes,including relations on Events. NOTE that in COSMO an 'Object' is not necessarily 3D (as in an endurantist perspective) nor 4D (as in a perdurantist perspective. It can be use in syntactic constructions that appear to be 3D (such as when they are explicitly time-indexed), but when an object is also an instance of TimeSlice,it can be used in syntactic constructions that are typical of the 4D perspective, in which the time of a relation is not explicitly indexed. There is no WordNet sysnset that includes abstract objects, so the WordNet 'object' is identified only with 'PhysicalObject'. object A 'GenericContainer' can be Physical or Abstract, natural or artifactual. For example, it can be a body cavity (natural, physical) or a folder in computer file system that holds files or other folders (artifactual, abstract or physical). This very general type is used as one of the domains for the 'contains' relation. @ToDo: subrelations of 'contains' may be specialized to distinguish diferent types of containment (physical objects versus abstract objects) There is no entry in WordNne or Longman DV corresponding to this abstract type - in WordNet 'container' refers only to the artifactual objects created to contain things. This COSMO type is a supertype of and includes the WordNet sense Wordnet 'container' (1 sense only): 1. (15) container - (any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another)) container container1n The most general Type for Objects whose subtypes are abstract - intangible - things that do not have mass. Note that AbstractEntity is not a subtype of AbstractObject - the name 'Abstract' is retained for alignment with other ontologies. NOTE in particular that AbstractEntity is not disjoint from MentalObject, which may be created by people in space and time, and hae a location in space and time. The kind of abstract things that do not have a locaiton in space and time are under 'AbstrctObject' in COSMO. COSMO Note: the notion of 'Abstract' has historically been somewhat vague. It is often defined by saying that it represents things 'not located in space or time' - but then subclasses are defined which are clearly mental constructs with a defined creation time (e.g. musical compositions) - which means that they must indeed be located in time and space. In this ontology we distinguish 'Abstract' things from 'MentalObjects' - the latter are things created by IntelligentAgents (people) that have no mass, and therefore would traditionally be categorized as 'Abstract'. 'AbstractObject' here is used mostly to categorize mathematical things such as numbers, which arguably do not depend on intelligent entities for their existence. But 'AbstractEntities" and 'MentalObjects' are not considered disjoint here, so there is room for people to argue whether mathematical concepts are created or merely discovered by mathematicians - we take no position on that issue. An 'AtemporalRole' is an abstract entity that is defined by its relation to other entities, but is not a TemporalThing. hasAttributeType relates an Attribute to the Type of the attribute. A TemporalLocation is a location for something - usually an Event - in the universal time line of our real world, or some alternative reality. It may be a time interval or a point in time. Instances of TemporalLocation may be represented by a DateTimeString , without being reified as an actual instance of this Type. This category includes the conceptual 'Datetime' Entity that is pointed to by the common relations like 'CREATION_DATETIME' that occur in databases. This entity is often represented by a built-in dataype of 'DateTime' or something similar. In COSMO, a DateTime is represented by subtpyes of DateTimeString, an AbstractString. A location in time can serve as a Context, which is anything that can affect the truth of a statement. In the real world, virtually every statement about real-world objects is true only in some particular time interval. RELATIVITY: Time is assumed in COSMO to be measured by some clock, which by default is the NIST atomic clock set, but can be specified as some other clock. Thus a time slice of a spatiotemporal region will be unambiguous, and observers moving relative to that clock, or relative to each other, need to adjust their interpretation according to the equations of relativity. In COSMO there is a superfluous subtype link of this entity to the most general 'Thing' so that 'time' will be exposed to viewers of this ontology at the highest level in Protege, for perspicuity. ******** NOTE on BFO 'TemporalRegion' *********************** The BFO 'TemporalRegion' appears to be the closest BFO Type to the COSMO 'TemporalLocation'. BFO Definition ('TemporalRegion'): An occurrent that is part of time. BFO: Examples ('TemporalRegion'): the time it takes to run a marathon, the duration of a surgical procedure, the moment of death COOSMO note: this is not a *quantity* of time, as the BFO example might suggest, but a *location* in time. 'ten minutes' is not an instance of 'TemporalLocation'. ******** NOTE on BFO 'TemporalRegion' *********************** TimeInterval is not a quantity of time (what is measured by a stopwatch), but a it is a specific region of the time line, what is measured by a calendar (in our real world or in some hypothetical world). NOTE that it is not necessary that a TimeInterval be measured from some universal fixed point, such as 0 AD; any point on the time line may be used as the base reference point for a TimeInterval - but some reference point must be specified or implied. Each TimeInterval has some lenght of time, a 'TimeDuration', related by the property 'hasDuration'; but as of rev977 COSMO does not require specifying the length of time. It may be implied in the beginning and ending time, if they are specified. Called: TimeInterval(Cyc); TimeInterval(SUMO - but SUMO requires contiguous intervals); time-interval(DOLCE) or period_in_time(ISO15926); the BFO equivalents of TimeInterval ('TemporalInterval') and TimePoint ('TemporalInstant') are disjoint in BFO, but a TimePoint is a subtype of TimeInterval in COSMO. For a quantity of time, use 'TimeDuration'. COSMO NOTE: as a convenience, a calendar time interval can be given a name that conforms to the conventions of one of the DateTime strings defined in COSMO, such as a 'DateTimeExtendedGroup', providing an opportunity for an interpreter to recognize the referenced time interval solely from the name of the instance. See the example used in defining the TimeAndPlace 'WorldTradeCenter20010911'. In Cyc, TimeInterval is not a measure. SUMO: An interval of time. Note that a TimeInterval has both an extent and a location on the universal timeline. Note too that a TimeInterval has no gaps, i.e. this class contains only convex time intervals. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 A specialization of #$TemporalThing. Each instance of #$TimeInterval is a temporal thing characterized fully by its temporal attributes. For example, the year A.D. 1967 is an instance of #$TimeInterval; although many interesting things happened during that year, the year itself is completely defined by its temporal extent. On the other hand, the event of Neil Armstrong's walking on the Moon is an #$Event and not a #$TimeInterval, since it is not fully characterized by its temporal extent or other temporal attributes. Specializations of #$TimeInterval include #$CalendarYear, #$CalendarMonth, and #$FiscalQuarter. DOLCE: a region - (Space and Time are special kinds of regions, i.e. AttributeValues or measures) A temporal region, measured according to a calendar. NOTE that a redundant subtype link to 'SituationProcessEventOrState' is included just to make it easier to find TimeInterval in a drill-down search. Corresponds approximately to noun sense 2 of 'time' in WordNet, but a 'TimeInterval' can be very specific as to starting and ending TimePoints: 2. (355) time - (an indefinite period (usually marked by specific attributes or activities); 'he waited a long time'; 'the time of year for planting'; 'he was a great actor is his time') time time time2n A TimePoint is a closed interval of time having zero length. The beginning TimePoint and Ending TimePoint are identical for any given TimePoint. The representation of a TimePoint as a zero-length time interval is only an alternate view of a TimePoint. (=> (isanInstanceOf ?TP TimePoint) (and (hasStartingTimePoint ?TP ?TP) (hasEndingTimePoint ?TP ?TP))) A TimePoint is classified here as a subclass of TimeInterval because we adopt the interpretation that a time interval of zero length duration is indistinguishable from a time point. We know from special relativity that time may proceed at different rates in objects that are moving relative to each other, so all time values must be relative to some clock. In the absence of any explicit clock designation, the NIST atomic clock signals transmitted from Boulder Colorado are considered as the clock of reference. A TimePoint may be represented by a limit expression, e.g. 'before Jan 1 2008', or by a range ('some time point between Jan 1 200 and Jan 1 2008'). This allows incomplete time information to be entered when not known exactly. This may be implemented by a functional expression, but is not yet formalized in COSMO version 0.44. ******* COSMO NOTE on BFO 'TimeInstant' ************ COSMO note: in COSMO, time points are subtypes of TimeInterval, so the 'disjoint' relation in BFO between TimePoint and TimeInterval was removed. BFO: owl:disjointWith rdf:resource= '#TemporalInterval' BFO rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource= '#ConnectedTemporalRegion' BFO Definition: A connected temporal region comprising a single moment of time. BFO Examples: right now, the moment at which a finger is detached in an industrial accident, the moment at which a child is born, the moment of death ******* COSMO NOTE on BFO 'TimeInstant' ************ Corresponds to noun sense 6 of 'point' and sense 1 of 'point in time' and includes sensse 6 of 'time' in WordNet: 6. (9) point, point in time - (an instant of time; 'at that point I had to leave') WN 'time': 6. (35) clock time, time - (the time as given by a clock; 'do you know what time it is?'; 'the time is 10 o'clock') point point point6n point in time point in time1n time time time6n A specialization of the 'finishes' relation which points from a TemporalThing (TimeInterval or Event) to the TimePoint at which that TemporalThing ended. A specialization of the 'starts' relation which points from a TemporalThing (TimeInterval or Event) to the TimePoint at which that TemporalThing started. When, linguistically, a TimeInterval is specified as the starting time, by convention the middle point of that interval will be the time point, but some uncertaintly needs to be built in to this measure. @ToDo: perhaps a TimeInterval can be included in the domain rather than only a TimePoint. Needs further consideration. Corresponds to verb sense 6 and the temporal part of verb sense 2 of 'begin' in WordNet: 2. (58) begin, start - (have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense; 'The DMZ begins right over the hill'; 'The second movement begins after the Allegro'; 'Prices for these homes start at $250,000') 6. begin - (have a beginning, of a temporal event; 'WW II began in 1939 when Hitler marched into Poland'; 'The company's Asia tour begins next month') begin begin begin2v begin6v An Entity that has a beginning point in time and an ending point in time. The usage of this term in COSMO differs from the usage in OpenCyc, in that it does **not** include PhysicalObject as a subtype, though the two categories are not disjoint. The purpose of the cyc concept appears to be to permit relating both PhysicalObjects and Events to their time location. In COSMO, that purpose is served by the relation 'hasTemporalLocation' (which see) which has as its domain the union of Events and PhysicalObjects.and 'wasCreatedDuring' and 'wasDestroyedDuring', There is, however, a subtle issue in that the beginning and ending time of a 'TemporalThing' may be the same time, i.e. the instance may be an instantaneous time slice of a time-extended entity. Since in COSMO zero-interval extended entities are indistinguishable from point entities, this means that a '3-D' endurantist object can be an instance of 'TemporalThing' just as a HumanRole, a '4-D' perdurantist object can be an instance of the typically '3-D' Person. In Opencyc a 'TemporalThing' is very generic, it is anything that has a beginning point in time (and presumably an ending point, though it may not be known for existing things). Thus physical objects, which must come into existence at some time (perhaps the beginning of time), as well as events, are 'TemporalThings'. In COSMO, TemporalThing is reserved for TimeIntervals and Events, and PhysicalObjects are not classified as subtypes of TemporalThing. The creation and destruction time of PhysicalObjects will use different relations. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of all things that have temporal extent or location, i.e. things about which one might sensibly ask When? . #$TemporalThing thus contains many kinds of things, including events, physical objects, agreements, and abstract pieces of time. Note that #$TimePoint is a specialization of #$TemporalThing, since time points have temporal location, although they arguably lack temporal extent. Abstract things that are timeless - such as mathematical sets, attributes, and numbers - are of course _not_ instances of #$TemporalThing. NOTE that although every TemporalThing must have a starting and ending TimePont, that notion is not represented as an existential restriction so that it will not be necessary to explicitly represent the starting and ending times of intervals whose starting and ending times can be calculated from the name. This is a pragmatic and implementational, not a theoretical consideration. COSMO: SituationProcessEventOrState is a broad category that includes Events, FunctionalProcesses, and PersistentStates,all of which are different aspects of the same fundamental conceptual entity, commonly called an 'Event'. Each instance of 'SituationProcessEventOrState' in COSMO is a Group of TimeIndexedAssertion, in aggregate representing the changes (if any) to the properties (attributes and relations) of one or more objects over some interval of time, An InstantaneousState may have only one TimeIndexedAssertion, but Events and FunctionalProcesses will have at least two. Event is a Group of 'TimeIndexedAssertion's containing the component elements: (1) InstantaneousState at the starting time (2) InstantaneousState at the Ending time (3) The FunctionalProcess that describes the intermediate states between the starting and ending times. **Informally**, a state,process, or event is interpreted as the set of *values* of some 'fluents' (attributes or relations that may change over time), but the actual *formal* representation is a Group in which the group elements are the *LinguisticAssertions* specifying the values of the fluents pertaining to some Group of Objects. Each LinguisticAssertion specifies the value at some time point (or time interval). The differences in State, Process,and Event are: State: The Group of Assertions that hold at one time point (InstantaneousState), or persist without change of value over some contiguous interval of time (PersistentState). No value can chage within a State. FunctionalProcess: The full set of LinguisticAssertions specifying the values of fluents at each time point or smaller TimeInterval within a TimeInterval in which the Process is defined. The set of LinguisticAssertions relate times to values,and in that respect is analogous to a mathematical function. In analogy to a mathematical function, one can derive a 'rate' for a Process (in cases where the values are quantified) by taking the ratio of (difference in value) to (difference in time) for any TimeInterval in which a change of value is specified. This rate may change from time to time during a FunctionalProcess. Event: focuses on the values of the fluents at the beginning and ending of some TimeInterval, but also includes the FunctionalProcess that specifies the fluent values at times between the beginning and ending. Since the focus of an Event is on the change from one time point to the next, one cannot specify a 'rate' in the same sense as for a FunctionalProcess, where the rate may change many times during the FunctionalProcess. For an Event, one can derive a single 'rate' value that specifies the overall ratio of change of fluent value to time, between the beginning and ending points, and for an Event, only one such 'rate' can be defined. NOTE: In COSMO a Situation is classified as a CompositeConcept because it is considered as a composite of the InstantaneousStates at the beginning and ending times of the Situation (which can be the same time), plus the FunctionalProcess that describes the states intermediate between the beginning and ending times. Called: Situation-Temporal(Cyc) perdurant(DOLCE) ***** Special COSMO NOTE on BFO 'ProcessualEntity' ***************************** In BFO the Type 'ProcessualEntity' appears to be most closely similar to COSMO 'SituationProcessEventOrState'. However, the division of the BFO Type into 'FiatProcessPart' and 'Process' has no corresponding division in Cyc or SUMO. In COSMO we include a FiatProcessPart for compatibility, but do not use it (no subtypes), and do not use the BFO partition of 'ProcessualEntity'. BFO Definition: An occurrent that exists in time by occurring or happening, has temporal parts and always involves and depends on some SNAP entity. Examples: the life of an organism, the process of meiosis, the course of a disease, the flight of a bird ***** End Special NOTE on BFO 'ProcessualEntity' ***************************** Cyc 'Situation' is indistinguishable from 'Situation-Temporal' except for the possible inclusion in 'Situation' of abstract situations not enclosed in a time interval. The term 'Situation' has been interpreted in COSMO as strictly temporal, and the more abstract things that resenble situations have been aggregated under 'AbstractEvent'. Cyc ('Situtation') A subcollection of both #$IntangibleIndividual and #$TemporalThing. #$Situation subsumes #$Event and #$StaticSituation. Each instance of #$Situation is a state or event consisting of one or more objects having certain properties, or bearing certain relations to each other. OPENCYC 1: (Situation-Temporal) MAY 23, 2002 A subcollection of both #$Situation and #$TemporalThing. #$Situation-Temporal is the collection of all instances of #$Situation that have duration or other temporal properties . Thus, #$Situation-Temporal subsumes #$Event and #$StaticSituation, as well as some other specializations of #$Situation. It does _not_ subsume any specializations of #$Situation that have atemporal instances. DOLCE: Perdurants (AKA occurrences) comprise what are variously called events, processes, phenomena, activities and states. They can have temporal parts or spatial parts. For instance, the first movement of (an execution of) a symphony is a temporal part of the symphony. On the other hand, the play performed by the left side of the orchestra is a spatial part. In both cases, these parts are occurrences themselves. We assume that objects cannot be parts of occurrences, but rather they participate in them. Perdurants extend in time by accumulating different temporal parts, so that, at any time they are present, they are only partially present, in the sense that some of their proper temporal parts (e.g., their previous or future phases) may be not present. E.g., the piece of paper you are reading now is wholly present, while some temporal parts of your reading are not present yet, or any more. Philosophers say that endurants are entities that are in time, while lacking temporal parts (so to speak, all their parts flow with them in time). Perdurants, on the contrary, are entities that happen in time, and can have temporal parts (all their parts are fixed in time). Corresponds approximately to noun senses 1 of 'thing'l for Events involving people, use 'HumanActivity': 1. (404) thing - (a special situation; 'this thing has got to end'; 'it is a remarkable thing') thing thing thing1n SUMO - 155 The Class of all clock Seconds, which are not measures of a quantity of time, but locations on the universal time line. A BinaryFunction that assigns a PositiveRealNumber and a subclass of Minutes to the Seconds within each Minute corresponding to that PositiveRealNumber. For example, (SecondFn 4 (MinuteFn 5 Hour)) is the Class of all fourth Seconds of every fifth Minute of every hour. For another example, (SecondFn 8 Minute) would return the eighth second of every minute. For still another example, (SecondFn 9 (MinuteFn 15 (HourFn 14 (DayFn 18 (MonthFn 8 (YearFn 1912)))))) denotes 9 seconds and 15 minutes after 2 PM on the 18th day of August 1912. A BinaryFunction that assigns a PositiveRealNumber and a subclass of Minutes to the Seconds within each Minute corresponding to that PositiveRealNumber. For example, (SecondFn 4 (MinuteFn 5 Hour)) is the Class of all fourth Seconds of every fifth Minute of every hour. For another example, (SecondFn 8 Minute) would return the eighth second of every minute. For still another example, (SecondFn 9 (MinuteFn 15 (HourFn 14 (DayFn 18 (MonthFn 8 (YearFn 1912)))))) denotes 9 seconds and 15 minutes after 2 PM on the 18th day of August 1912. (SecondFn PositiveRealNumber Minute ) BFO Definition: An occurrent at or in which processual entities can be located. COSMO note: this concept in COSMO is very generic,a nd can be used to specify a spatiotemporal region of any shape. To specify a spatiotemporal region of a more defined shape, use 'TimeAndPlace', for which the spatial shape of the region will depend on the 'location' component of the instance defined. BFO Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a human life, the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor, the spatiotemporal context occupied by a process of cellular meiosis spatiotemporal_region COSMO: a three-dimensional region of some space (not necessarily our real world space). This is the space itself, and does not include or immply that ther are any objects in it. However, each instance of this kind fo space will usually be interpreted relative to some defined cooridinate system, which, in the ral world, usually means that it is relative to some physical object (which could be the collecion of all object in the universe as a whole, to provide a universal frame of revernce). In Cyc called 'ChunkOfSpace'. Cyc: A specialization of both #$ExtendedSpaceRegion and #$TwoOrHigherDimensionalThing (qq.v.). Instances of #$ChunkOfSpace are three-dimensional portions of a three-dimensional space. This is the kind of place that solid (i.e. three-dimensional) objects occupy. It makes sense to speak of, or compute, the volume of such objects. An important specialization of this collection is #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical, whose instances are pieces of space in the empirical universe - the kind of space that physical objects occupy. be669a01-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of wholly intangible individuals, a specialization of both #$Intangible and #$Individual. Instances of #$IntangibleIndividual are immaterial, and thus do not have mass, color, or other tangible qualities. Examples include mathematical objects (such as numbers, functions, and relations), attributes, time intervals, space regions, and events. Excluded are sets and collections because, although intangible, they are not individuals. IntangibleIndividual Each element of 'RegionOrObject' is either a Region or a PhysicalObject. The common typ eis GenericLocation. This is used to represent 'RegionPair', each element of which can be one or the other type. This is a necessary tactic because OWL does not like unions as values of relations. See 'RegionPair' for usage. be5c5d8b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A connected part of any space, physical or abstract. A Region does not have to be empty, but can be occupied by solid objects. For an empty region of space see 'FreeSpaceRegion'.This type differs from Place in that it cannot be a PhysicalObject, it is a Region of pure space, which may or may not have PhysicalObjects located in it. NOTE that Region is disjoint with PhysicalObject, but not disjoint with Object (which can be abstract). A Feature is classified as an Object though it may also be a Region. In Cyc called 'SpaceRegion' CYC: A specialization of both #$SpatialThing and #$IntangibleIndividual (qq.v.) whose instances are regions of space that exclusively act as possible locations for other spatial objects, and thus are immobile. A space region might be three-, two-, one-, or zero-dimensional; and spatial objects occupy such regions accordingly. Three-dimensional space regions (see #$ChunkOfSpace) can be occupied by solid objects. Two-dimensional space regions (or #$SpaceSurfaces) can be occupied by a purely two-dimensional objects. And similarly for one-dimensional space regions (#$SpaceLines) and zero-dimensional space regions (#$SpacePoints). Another important specialization of #$SpaceRegion is #$SpaceRegion-Empirical, whose instances are pieces of the embedding space for spatio-temporal objects (see #$SpatialThing-Localized). For more on spatial location and occupancy, see #$AbsoluteLocationalPredicate and its instances. BFO (SpatialRegion): Definition: A continuant at or in which other continuants can be located. COSMO note: in BFO, a SpatialRegion is the union of: Line, Point, Surface, and Volume. This is close to the present concept of 'Region', but those terms in COSMO are more abstract. Includes but is broader than noun sense 1 of 'area' in WordNet, and the closest sense of WordNet'region' is sense 1: WN 'region': 1. (67) region, part - (the extended spatial location of something; 'the farming regions of France'; 'religions in all parts of the world'; 'regions of outer space') WN 'area': 1. (620) area, country - (a particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography); 'it was a mountainous area'; 'Bible country') area area area1n region region1n One of the fundamental directions which define a space, abstract or physical; a 'Dimension' provides a criterion by which to create a linear ordering of points, which may themselves be complex objects. This is an abstrac notion, of which the common Dimensions of SpaceTime (three spatial, one time) are subtypes. Each Dimension is an abstract part of a Space. A Dimension provides a means of linear ordering, but does not have to be metric - there does not have to be a defined distance between points within the Dimension. Corresponds approximately to the union of senses 1 (mathematical) and 5 (topology) of 'dimension' in RHW: 1.Math. a. a property of space; extension in a given direction: A straight line has one dimension, a parallelogram has two dimensions, and a parallelepiped has three dimensions. b. the generalization of this property to spaces with curvilinear extension, as the surface of a sphere. c. the generalization of this property to vector spaces and to Hilbert space. 5. Topology. a. a magnitude that, independently or in conjunction with other such magnitudes, serves to define the location of an element within a given set, as of a point on a line, an object in a space, or an event in space-time. Includes sense 3 and (a small) part of sense 2 of 'dimension' in WordNet; it is unclear whether the WordNet sense 2 is intended to include the sense of this type, but if not, it should: 2. (5) property, attribute, dimension - (a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished; 'self-confidence is not an endearing property') 3. (1) dimension - (one of three Cartesian coordinates that determine a position in space) dimension dimension2n dimension3n A 'Dimension' in which there is a defined 'distance' measure that allows one to specify the distance between any two points in the Dimension. Corresponds approximately to the union of senses 1 (mathematical) and 5 (topology) of 'dimension' in RHW: 1.Math. a. a property of space; extension in a given direction: A straight line has one dimension, a parallelogram has two dimensions, and a parallelepiped has three dimensions. b. the generalization of this property to spaces with curvilinear extension, as the surface of a sphere. c. the generalization of this property to vector spaces and to Hilbert space. 5. Topology. a. a magnitude that, independently or in conjunction with other such magnitudes, serves to define the location of an element within a given set, as of a point on a line, an object in a space, or an event in space-time. Includes sense 3 of 'dimension' in WordNet: 3. (1) dimension - (one of three Cartesian coordinates that determine a position in space) dimension dimension3n 'DimensionOfCausality' is a 'MetricDimension' that can be an abstract dimension, or in our space-time the TimeDimension; its special property is that some 'causality' (abstract or concrete) must work from the lower magnitutdes of the Dimesnion to the higher magnitudes. The TimeDimension of or SpaceTime is one subtype. This type is included in COSMO to allow an abstraction of the dimension of Time in our SpaceTime, so that onw can envision abstract processes that 'cause' things to happen in an abstract space. For example, one can have an abstract Cartesian space with geometric objects whose shape, oritentation, or position relative to other objects are caused to change by the action of other objects or events, or processes in that space - i.e. a 'virtual world'. The DimensionOfCausality in such an abstract world would be analogous to Time in our SpaceTime, where effects must necessarily follow causes. 'TimeDimension'is the dimension of time in our SpaceTime; it is a subtype of the more abstract 'DimensionOfCausality'. Corresponds to noun sense 7 of 'time' in WordNet: 7. (33) fourth dimension, time - (the fourth coordinate that is required (along with three spatial dimensions) to specify a physical event) time time time7n COSMO Note: note that Cyc SpatialThing does not have to be in our space-time, whereas DOLCE spatio-temporal-particular is. So the DOLCE class is a subclass of the Cyc class. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of all things that have a spatial extent or location relative to some other #$SpatialThing or in some embedding space. Note that to say that an entity is a member of this collection is to remain agnostic about two issues. First, a #$SpatialThing may be #$PartiallyTangible (e.g. #$Texas-State) or wholly #$Intangible (e.g. #$ArcticCircle or a line mentioned in a geometric theorem). Second, although we do insist on location relative to another spatial thing or in some embedding space, a #$SpatialThing might or might not be located in the actual physical universe. It is far from clear that all #$SpatialThings are so located: an ideal platonic circle or a trajectory through the phase space of some physical system (e.g.) might not be. If the intent is to imply location in the empirically observable cosmos, the user should employ this collection's specialization, #$SpatialThing-Localized. Note that most of the Cyc 'SpatialThings' are in our universe (though not necessarily), so most are also under DOLCE 'spatio-temporal-particular'. DOLCE: Dummy class for optimizing some property universes. It includes all entities that are not reifications of universals ('abstracts'), i.e. those entities that are in space-time. spatio-temporal-particular[DOLCE]%SpatialThing OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of all spatial things, tangible or intangible, that can be meaningfully said to have location or position in the empirically observable universe of the context in question. This includes all #$PartiallyTangible things, such as pyramids and ships, as well as certain #$Intangible spatial things, like the #$Equator. Also included are all #$Events that can be pinned down to specific places (see #$Event-Localized), and thus all #$PhysicalEvents. But note that many events are non-examples, such as the event of a certain law coming into effect and (presumably) purely mental events as well, at least in most contexts. Also excluded are #$SpatialThings that are _not_ localized, such as purely abstract geometrical figures (e.g. a Platonic sphere). All instances of #$SpatialThing-Localized are temporal things, and thus have finite lifespans (the upper bound of which is the lifespan of the universe itself). Finally, note that imaginary entities like Frodo, Captain Queeg, and #$HAL9000-TheComputer may be localized within the (imaginary) universes attaching to the fictitious contexts in which they are defined, and so would be instances of #$SpatialThing-Localized within those microtheoretic contexts. NOTE: because Cyc 'SpatialThing-Localized' includes intangible spatial things, this is not identical to the purely physical objects such as 'Oject' in SUMO. In COSMO,purely physical objects are categorized in the Type 'PhysicalObject', which is a subtype of this 'SpatialThing-Localized' category. A SpatialRegion can be of any dimension, though the ones of most interest are three-dimensional in our real world. All Regions must have their location referenced to some definable object, whether abstract or physical. In theory, it may be possible to consider the whole universe as an Object and define 'absolute' regions based on locations in the whole universe, but that may not be useful for any practical purpose. The regions of greatest interest to people are regions defined relative to the Earth's surface, which forms a moving rotating frame of reference, which we treat as stationary for most purposes. NOTE: The BFO 'SpatialRegion' is closest to the COSMO 'PhysicalSpaceRegion' which is a subtype of this Type. PhysicalSPaceRegion is a portion of the there-dimensional space of our real world space-time universe. This is considered equialent to\the BFO 'Volume' COSMO Note: SpaceRegion in OpenCyc is not an Object, but pure space. Objects may be located in space. This region is part our our Space-Time This concepts is roughly equivalent to the OpenCyc 'ChunkOfSpace-Empirical', but we allow space regions to be defined by their relation to physical objects - therefore they may not be 'immobile' as the Cyc documentation suggests for 'ChunkOfSpace-Empirical'. For simplicity, the Cyc concept 'SpaceRegion-Empirical' has been merged with this concept, as the distinctions did not seem to have sufficient importance to justify the complexity. BFO: the BFO Type 'SpatialRegion' appears to have the same intent as this Type. The BFo subtypes of Line and Surface appear to be isentical to the subtypes of this Type: SpaceLine-Empirical, SpaceSurface-Empirical, BFO Definition ('SpatialRegion'): A continuant at or in which other continuants can be located. BFO Examples ('SpatialRegion'): the space occupied by an appendix, the space that was occupied by an appendix prior to its removal Cyc comment for 'ChunkOfSpace-Empirical': A specialization of #$SpaceRegion-Empirical, #$ChunkOfSpace, and #$SpatialThing-Localized (qq.v.). Instances of #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical are three-dimensional portions of the intangible space of the empirically-observable universe. This is the kind of space that physical objects occupy. Cyc comment for 'SpaceRegion-Empirical': A specialization of #$SpaceRegion, #$SpatialThing-Localized, and #$IntangibleExistingThing (qq.v.). Instances of #$SpaceRegion-Empirical are intangible regions of space located in the empirically observable universe. A space region might or might not be connected (see #$SpatiallyContinuousThing). It might be partially or completely filled with (occupied by) #$PartiallyTangibles, or it might be completely empty (but cf. #$EmptySpaceRegion). In any case, the space region itself is not to be confused with a physical object or other spatially localized (non-space-region) thing that might happen to be #$cospatial with it. A given space region can be characterized fully merely by specifying its location and dimensions. Thus (although this is not the case with spatial things in general), space regions are identical (#$equals) if and only if they are #$cospatial. #$SpaceRegion-Empirical is in a way the spatial analogue of #$TimeInterval, whose own instances can be fully characterized by specifying their temporal properties; these two collections can be used, respectively, to talk about space and time as dimensions . Specializations of #$SpaceRegion-Empirical include #$SpacePoint-Empirical, #$SpaceLine-Empirical, #$SpaceSurface-Empirical, and #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 A specialization of #$SpatialThing whose instances are regions of space that exclusively act as locations for other spatial objects, and thus are immobile. Instances of #$SpatialThing are said to occupy some region of space. Three dimensional regions of space [#$ChunkOfSpace] can be occupied by solid objects, see the specialization #$ChunkOfSpace-Empirical for the regions of space occupied by physical objects. Purely two-dimensional objects occupy a #$SpaceSurface, see also #$SpaceLine and #$SpacePoint-Empirical for objects of lower dimension. Note that an object of a given dimension cannot truly be located [#$exactlyLocatedAt-Spatial] at a region of space of lower dimension, but only partially or incidentally. For more information on location and occupancy, see #$AbsoluteLocationalPredicate and its instances that relate objects in space and their regions. An important specialization of #$SpaceRegion is #$SpaceRegion-Empirical, whose instances are pieces of the embedding space where spatio-temporal objects are empirically localizable [#$SpatialThing-Localized]. Note that SpaceRegion in SUMO is an object viewed as a location. A GenericAgent is an aggregate concept representing things that can be linguistically categorized as agents, that is they are the causative subject of an action. One difficulty comes when including Organizations as Agents; Organizations are not actual physical Objects, therefore cannot literally do things to change the physical world. Rather, people who belong to Organizations, or their 'agents' do the actual moving and lifting that are the causes of actions in the real world. Nevertheless we talk of organizations as though they were somehow objects that did the actions themselves. A second problem arises when inanimate objects take the linguistic form of agents: 'The rock broke the window' or 'The knife cut a deep gash in his arm'. By themseles, those sentences would have the rock or the knife as agents, and the window or arm as patients. If more detail were given: "Tom broke the window with a rock'; 'Tom cut a deep gash in Mike's arm with a knife', the agent now shows up as Tom, and the rock and knife are instruments. For that reason, an instrument (a Role) is categorized in COSMO as a subtype of GenericAgent, to accommodate the linguistic structures where instruments take on the synactic/semantic role of an agent. This category is here to provide a place for the linguistic notion of 'Agent' that can include 'social agents' such as organizations. In this classification we adopt a broad view of agents, allowing inanimate things like hurricanes and tornadoes to be classified as AgentiveObjects. Role is a high-level concept that aggregates several primitive notions, and is difficult to describe analytically, but has a necessary property that, as a subtype of TemporalThing, every instance has a beginning time and an ending time. For Roles that are created by an Event and last forever, (The Father of PrinceWilliam), the ending time can be TheEndOfTime. NOTE that this 'Role' differs from the CYC treatment of roles, which usually uses ternary predicates to relate the role-filling or role-playing to a specific situation. The time restrictions in CYC will be addressed by the time retrictions on the situation. In COSMO, since ternary predicates are not explicitly used, the time restrictions have to be added to the instance of 'Role' which is a TemporalThing. NOTE also that there are significant differences in subtypes of 'Role'. 'Part' is a subtype of Role in which assertions about the instance of role filler carry implications that the same assertion is true of the instance of 'Role' in that time frame - that Roles and their fillers merge as one individual in that time frame. This is also true of HumanRoles such as 'Student', 'teacher'. This convention is adopted to keep COSMO usage as close as possible to linguistic usage. But for 'PretendingRole', such as acting roles, it is not always true that what is asserted about the role player will be true about the role. An instance of a 'Role' in COSMO is to be interpreted as 'an entity that serves in this Role', and therefore there is no restriction on a subtype relation between Roles and entities that have 'rigid' identities; an instance of 'Student' is an instance of Person that serves in the Role of 'Student', in some time interval. Every instance of Role or a subtype will be an instance only in some TimeInterval, but that TimeInterval may be the whole lifetime of the instance, e.g. a Person will be the 'Child' of its parents as long as it lives, though being a Child is a Role. @ToDo: Certain type of Roles (such as Part) may relate abstract entities that are not located in time, and should not be subtypes of TemporalThing. A differentiation of time-dependent and time-independent Roles should be added. The notion of Role is related to the more general notion of a semantic relation, and in some knowledge representations the relations are called 'roles'. In COSMO there is s difference, as a Role is a type, though every Role may in fact imply the existence of some semantic relation that relates the role to another entity with respect to which it plays a role. The details of how to relate these notions is left to a later stage of development of the ontology. For case roles in a specific Event, the Role lasts no longer than the duration of the Event (but may last for less than that time, for participants who participate only for part of an Event). The most common use of 'Role' is for concepts that exist in dependence on other concepts, such as 'Mother', which implies a child, or 'President' which implies some organization. But grammatical roles such as the cases of verb case frames will also fit under this broad category. When a phrase such as 'The ?X of ?Y' is encountered, almost invariably the ?X is a Role of some kind, which also includes parts. In COSMO 'Role' is broad enough to include Events; for example, 'Choice' is a Role, and some Events may fill the Role of 'Choice' - those things a Person chooses to do. NOTE importantly: that HumanRole is a subtype of this category, and also a subtype of Person, so Person and Role are not disjoint. This allows HumanRoles (janitor, President) to serve in the same relations that people themselves would serve, but they are also recognizable as Roles because they will be subtypes of the Role category. The mathematical and logical 'equals' can be used to equate a unique Role with its filler, but only if the time interval during which that relation holds is specified. In that case, the Role and its filler can be used interchangeably, but only in the base 'all-knowing' context. NOTE that Roles may not be 'transparent' in referential contexts asserting beliefs or possible worlds. A person who does not know the filler of a Role may express opinions about the Role, which are inconsistent with their opinions about the filler of the Role. For example, a man who loves his wife may assert that he hates the murderer of a friend, not knowing that his wife is the murderer of his friend. If the Role and role filler were asserted to be mathematically identical in all contexts, this would entail a contradiction, assuming that love and hate are disjoint for this example. An individual assertion by a Person needs to be treated as a part of a belief system. NOTE also that when used as a pure OWL ontology, it will be necessary for every subclass of Role should to be an instance of RoleType, so that it can be used as an argument for the relation 'isServingInTheRoleOf'. If, in other formats, this condition is not explicit, the translation should add the Type when converting into OWL format. For Roles that are merged with other Types, such as HumanRoles, each should have its own explicit relation indicating when the role-filler started in that role and when (it/he/she) ended. If it is possible to fill a Role for multiple non-continguous periods of time, then the begin and end time of each continuous segment of 'Role' will define individual instances of that Role; as a reault, the relation 'isServingInTheRoleOf' cannot be functional. NOTE also that the use of 'Role" in the COSMO is still being developed, and is likely to be seen to be inconsistent in application (though not logically inconsistent) as of v 0.49. The issue not yet resolved is whether the subtypes of 'Role' as here used would be better categorized as 'playing a role' rather than 'being a role'. Although this quasi-philosophical issue is not yet clear, this vagueness does not appear to cause any logical inconsistencies in usage. An AttributeValue is the actual value of some AttributeType possessed by some object, such as six feet for a length, or red for a color. Individual AttributeValues are represented as Types (classes) in COSMO, not as instances. IMPORTANT NOTE: the values represented by each of these AttributeValue Types are here viewed as a region ('Quality Space') in which the actual particular value (see Type 'Quality') is located. Thus one may say an object has a 'Red' color, but later refine the description to say it has a 'Fire Red' color. The 'Fire Red' is also a color region, contained within the 'Red' color region. For quantitative measures, representing attributes as classes allows approximate measures to be built in to the ontology itself. One may specify a range for a measure, and any other measure within or overlapping that range can be considered as 'indistinguishable from' (not 'equal to') the other measure. NOTE: under consideration - the possibility of expressing the possession of an attribute for some interval of time by creating instances of AttributeValue or of Attribute that are also TimeSlices, with the time interval of the TimeSlice representing the time interval during which the Attribute was had. This has an advantage over using TimeSlice to create 4D TimeSlices of an object, and then attributing an Attribute to it - in that one need not create new instances of an Object, which may not be easily associated with the 3D object. GenericSubstance List name: GenericSubstance_COSMO-added__not_an_object__includes_chemicals_ COSMO: GenericSubstance is an abstract notion of Substance as the stuff of which objects are composed. It is not an object, even though the 'Substance's in OpenCyc and SUMO are actually classes of objects of some particular (homogeneous) composition. In COSMO, we make this provision, among other reasons, to allow abstract 'substances' to compose abstract objects. In COSMO 'Substance' is a concept that is analogous to the derivative of an object with respect to volume, i.e. it acts like an abstract density (of some substance type). For COSMO version 0.01 (COSMOtopOWL03: 2006-01-01) the required axioms for a proper definition have not been added. For more discussion see: http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/ontac/reference/DimensionsOfProcessAndEvent.doc takesValue relates an AttributeType to the AttributeValues that instantiate the AttributeType. For example, the AttributeType Length will be instantiated by an instance of the type 'LengthMeasure'; thus {Length takesValue LengthMeasure} But because QualitativeAttributeValues are types in COSMO, instances of AttributeValueType may also instantiate an AttributeType. This relation is in some respects reminiscent of the 'instance' relation, but is specific to the relationship between AttributeTypes and AttributeValues (qualitative and quantitative), used to implement the specific method of representing attributes that is adopted for COSMO.. The inverse of 'takesValue'. An AttributeType is a general category of attribute, i.e. some property that adheres in an object, such as length or mass or color or shape for physical objects. More abstract objects such as sets or groups may have more abstract attributes such as cardinality. The distinction between attributes and relations between entities is not absolute. COSMO note: The use of two distinct trees of attribute-related types (AttributeType and AttributeValue) is intended to enable assertions with a linguistic form such as: {Jack has Height {6 feet}) where the second argument 'Height' specifies the general type of attribute, and the value '{6 feet}' specifies the specific attribute value, where 'feet' is a function returning a distance measure. This generic attribute assertion can then be used with other types of attributes, such as: {Jack has Weight {60 kilograms}) and {Car037 has Color RedColor). Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'attribute' and sense 3 and 4 of 'property' in WordNet: 1. (2) property, attribute, dimension - (a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished; 'self-confidence is not an endearing property') WN noun 'Property': 3. (138) property - (a basic or essential attribute shared by all members of a class; 'a study of the physical properties of atomic particles') 4. (32) property, attribute, dimension - (a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished; 'self-confidence is not an endearing property') attribute attribute1n property property property3n property4n COSMO note: a Place can be a PhysicalObject or a Region. This category is very generic, but is more specific than 'GenericLocation' in that the Place should be stationary, and not an arbitrary PhysicalObject such as a vehicle.. Cyc: A specialization of #$EnduringThing-Localized. Each instance of #$Place is a spatial thing which has a relatively permanent location. Thus, in a given microtheory, each #$Place is stationary with respect to the frame of reference of that microtheory. Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'position' and sense 3 of 'place' and sense 1 of 'spot' and sense 1 of 'location' in WordNet: WN 'position' 1. (39) position, place - - (the particular portion of space occupied by something; 'he put the lamp back in its place') WN 'spot' 1. (26) topographic point, place, spot - - (a point located with respect to surface features of some region; "this is a nice place for a picnic") WN 'location': 1. (992) location - - (a point or extent in space) bd58d3b4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 position position position1n place place place3n spot spot spot1n location location1n Each SituationalContextComponent is one of the components of the situation in which an IntelligentEntity finds itself, of which it must be aware in order to act or respond appropriately so as to fulfill its goals. Each SituationalContextComponent is defined relative to a particular CognitiveAgent whose actions are being represented in the ontology. GenericLocation is the Type representing the most general notion of location, which can be abstract or concrete, a region of space (including an abstract space, such as the Internet considered as a set of nodes and links, where the nodes can represent computers whose physical location may vary), a point in space, or a physical object (e.g. building, ship, room). NOTE that an Address is not a location, but a label for a location. See 'Address'. NOTE: although *almost* all GenericLocations are exclusively spatial in some way, there is one 'TimeAndPlace' that is spatiotemporal, being a region of space-time that specifies some region of space over some interval of time. Use of an instance of 'TimeAndPlace' as an argument of a location relation allows one to include the important time interval qualifier in location relations, even though one is using only binary relations. this would not be necessary in a representation with higher-arity relations. This is somewhat similar to the Cyc 'Location-Underspecified' Cyc comment: The collection of locations, tangible or otherwise, which are typically conceptualized by human beings for purposes of common-sense reasoning as 'locations'. This collection thus includes tangible Places such as #$Ireland-TheIsland, as well as metaphoric locations. For instance, many states-of-being are conceptualized as abstract locations, such as Trouble ('he saw trouble ahead'), Depression ('she fell into a ...'), #$Happiness ('they found bliss together'). Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'location' and is somewhat broader than noun sense 1 of 'position' in WordNet; WN 'location' 1. (992) location - (a point or extent in space) WN 'position' 1. (39) position, place -- (the particular portion of space occupied by something; "he put the lamp back in its place") be14f511-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 location location location1n position position position1n place place place3n Each Attribute is an entity that has an AttributeType and some form of AttributeValue; it can serve as the value of a 'hasAttribute' relation. There are three subtypes of Attribute: QuantitativeAttribute, QualitativeAttribute, and IntensiveAttribute. In COSMO, the representation of 'attributes' (properties in informal terms) includes two or three aspects, depending on whether the Attribute is qualitative or quantitative, respectiely: (1) the AttributeType (Color, Length, Flexibility). The AttributeType specifies the kind of attribute that is being represented. Every instance of Attribute must specify the AttributeType (2) the AttributeValue (Color -Red; Length - 10 feet; Flexibility - high) for quantitative attributes (10 feet, 30 pounds) the AttributeValue is composed of both a number and a UnitOfMeasure. The UnitOfMeasure values include 'Dimensionless', a pure number (e.g. as an attribute of 'Cardinality' for a Group) In the case of quantitative attributes, rather than pointing from an instance of Attribute to a QuantitativeAttributeValue, the relations 'hasUnit' and 'hasQuantifier'can point directly to the UnitOfMeasure and the Quantifier. An instance of QuantitativeAttributeValue can be represented as the UnitOfMeasure and the quantifier, separately, specified by relations 'hasUnit' and 'hasQuantifier'. If the implementation allows use of functions, a QuantitativeAttributeValue can be represented as a function term such as {25.6 feet}. For QualitativeAttributes the AttributeValue may be directly represented. For IntensiveAttributes, the AttributeValue can have interal-type intensity values such as 'Low', 'Medium', 'High'. The type of an Attribute is specified as the value of the 'hasType' relation. Corresponds to a combinatiin of noun senses 1 and 2 of 'attribute' in WordNet: 1. (2) property, attribute, dimension - (a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished; 'self-confidence is not an endearing property') 2. (1) attribute - (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity) attribute attribute1n attribute2n Every Group consists of one or more entities considered as one unit, and is related to the component entities by the relation 'hasComponentElement'. A Group is not an abstract or mathematical concept - every group derives its properties solely from the entities that are its component elements. Thus a group of solid objects would be a solid object, and the mass of that object would be equal to the sum of the masses of the component objects. It has *some* similarity to the 'mereological sum' of mereologists. However, a Group may have component elements of very diverse kinds - there is no restriction on the membership of a Group, though one element can only count once in the cardinality of the group. A Group is somewhat similar to a Cyc 'Group', but is not restricted to physical things, and has relations to its members named differently than in Cyc. NOTE: A Group that has one component element is identical to that single element; in this respect it is similar to the mereological notion of a 'mereological sum'. The only group that can have itself as a component element is the group of one element. This latter property is the peculiar characteristic of this concept of 'Group', in contrast to other aggregates except, as noted, for 'mereological sum'. This concept of 'Group' makes certain representations covenient. In some cases, we want to define a function that may return one or more elements, but if there is one element, we also want that single element to be identical to the single element, and not encapsulated in an enveloping element. Returning a Group will allow that behavior. Note that a relation on a Group that can be applied to individuals (i.e. is not specifically defined on the type 'Group' or a subtype thereof) will only sometimes apply both to the Group and to its idividual elements. For example, if a Group is wholly located in some Place, then each element is wholly located in that Place. But the Group may have a mass, and no element will have thesame mass if the Group has more than one element. Those relations will have to be specified for each relation individually, where such a relation holds. One philosophical issue that interacts with this concept of 'Group' is whether aggregates of objects (e.g. an animal or a galaxy) 'exist' independently of the human conception of such things. A seemingly evident 'yes'answer ignores the question of how such aggregates are organized, and whether those principles of organization in some sense 'exist' independent of a thinking agent that perceives the aggregate as organized. For a galaxy, for example, one can define a 'Group' that consists of all of the individual stars - that Group has a mass and location, and it seems clear that such a Group exists independently of any perceptions of it - but only if the individual stars also exist independently of human perception, and this is itself not clear. However, if one defines a 'Group' consisting of all of the fundamental particles in some volume of space, there may be reason to suppose that that Group' does exist independently of perception. As for the galaxy, the notions that are included in the concept of a 'galaxy', meaning that it is not merely a Group of stars, but also their specific spatial organization, the fact that they move together in a certain way, and the expectation that they will remain together over some interval of time, are not parts of the notion of a 'Group' of stars. There can be many 'Groups' of stars that are not galaxies; and the notion of a 'Group' of objects does not include any of these relational components. So, when this notion of a COSMO 'Group' is recognized, one may be able to more clearly distinguish entities that seem to have an existence completely independent of human perception (such as photons, electrons, and other fundamental, indivisible particles), and aggregates whose identity does depend on human categorization. The practical effect of this distinction is nonexistent in COSMO; each COSMO type (class) is intensionally defined by an ontologist, and therfore an abstract artifact; the instances of each type depend on the context (time, place, possible world). Those instances (if finite and non-zero) will form a Group, but it will often be the case that such a Group will be if no interest as a 'Group' in data processing or reasoning. COSMO is agnostic as to whether aggregates 'exist' independently of the way they are considered in the ontology or in applications; that philospophical issue does not seem to have any practical importance. Cyc Documentation for 'Group' (**NOTE*** some differences from COSMO 'Group'. In Cyc a Group must consist of Temporal Objects, but in COSMO it is more general. The Group membership relation also differs.) OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 A collection of temporal objects. Each instance of #$Group is a composite object made up of one or more individual objects or events. A group is related to each of its members by the predicate #$groupMembers (q.v.) [COSMO: 'hasComponentElement'] Note that instances of #$Group are _not_ collections. A group has temporal extent [COSMO: a Group may be abstract] and might have spatial location, while a collection is timeless and nonspatial. It is of course possible to define a collection parallel to any given group, so that the instances of the collection are exactly the group-members of that group; e.g. each toe on my left foot (and nothing else) is both an instance of the collection of my left toes and a member of the group of toes on my left foot. But that group (of my left toes) is a spatiotemporal thing while the correlated collection (of my left toes) is not. Similarly, if a certain flock of pigeons is considered as having a location, a spatial extent, and a time of existence, then the flock is being considered a _group_ and not a collection. Finally, unlike a collection, a group cannot be empty, but must have _at_least_one_ group-member. As a default, a group whose group-members all are instances of #$SomethingExisting is itself an instance of #$SomethingExisting, and a group whose group-members all are #$Events is itself an #$Event. Instances of #$Group include #$QueensGuard, #$ThreeWiseMen, #$SantasReindeer, and #$InternationalCommunity. A CompositeConcept is a Group that consists of component elements of different basic types, such as a System (which see). The notion of a CompositeConcept provides a way to represent things like situations that have essential elements of different type (such as States and FunctionalProcesses). 'Individual' is a Cyc concept used to distinguish abstract sets and collections (classes) from things that are individuals. Interestingly, groups of things can be individuals - if they are defined as distinct from sets (see 'Group'). About the only type in COSMO that could not be considered as a subtype of this type is 'SetMathematical'; but maost types are not listed as subtypes of 'Individual', though they could be - just to avoid confusing the ontology with mostly useless relations. Any instance that is considered as a 'unit' by the knowledge engineer can be made an instance of this type, which is not disjoint with anything other than 'SetMathematical' This class may be superfluous, but in COSMO is a convenient catch-all for some aggregate Types that would merely serve to clutter the top level and obscure the structure of the ontology if exposed at the top level directly under 'Thing'. Conversely, Some of the subtypes of the Cyc 'individual' have also been subclassed directly to 'owl:Thing' to expose those common concepts at the highest level, to make the structure of the ontology easier to see. NOTE that some of the concepts mentioned in the Cyc documentation differ significantly in COSMO from related concepts in Cyc. But the Cyc documentation is given here to describe how the similar Cyc notion of Group is described in that ontology. From OpenCyc: OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 #$Individual is the collection of all individuals: things that are _not_ sets or collections. Individuals might be concrete or abstract, and include (among other things) physical objects, events, numbers, relations, and groups. An instance of #$Individual might have parts or structure (including discontinuous parts); but _no_ individual has elements or subsets (see #$elementOf and #$subsetOf). Thus, an individual that has parts (e.g. #$physicalParts or #$groupMembers) is _not_ the same thing as either the set or the collection containing those same parts. For example, your car is an individual, but the collection of all the parts of your car is not an individual but an instance of #$Collection. This collection (unlike the car itself) is abstract: it doesn't have a location, mass, or a top speed; but it does have instances, subcollections, and supercollections. In partial contrast, the #$Group (q.v.) of parts of your car (while also not the same thing as the car itself) _is_ an individual that has location and mass. Another example: A given company, the group consisting of all the company's employees, the collection of those employees, and the set of those employees are four distinct things, and only the first two are individuals. Corresponds to noun sense 2 of 'unit' in WordNet: 2. (16) unit - (an individual or group or structure or other entity regarded as a structural or functional constituent of a whole; 'the reduced the number of units and installations'; 'the word is a basic linguistic unit') unit unit unit2n 'ExternalReferringThing' is an artificial class created to provide a domain type for certain relations without referring to those specifictypes. This is solely an administrative tactic to improve modularization of the ontology. NOTE that the external thing refered to can be anything at all. connected_spatiotemporal_region BFO Definition: A space time region that has temporal and spatial dimensions such that all points within the spatiotemporal region are mediately or immediately connected to all other points within the same space time region. Examples: the spatial and temporal location of an individual organism's life, the spatial and temporal location of the development of a fetus. @ToDo: COSMO note: in COSMO, the type TimePoint (instant) is a subtype of TimeInterval, whereas in BFO interval and instant are disjoint. The BFO interval, therefore must be a non-zero length. For simplicity, COSMO does not yet have a non-zero-length instant (no need yet), and when that is added the BFO 'SpatiotemporalInterval' neeeds to be equated with the non-zero-length interval, and the subtype relation of 'SpatiotemporalInstant' and 'SpatiotemporalInterval' must be removed.. BFO Definition: A space time region that has spatial and temporal dimensions and every spatial and temporal point of which is not connected with every other spatial and temporal point of which. Examples: the space and time occupied by the individual games of the World Cup, the space and time occupied by the individual liaisons in a romantic affair. scattered_spatiotemporal_region Definition: A connected space time region at a specific moment. Examples: the space time region occupied by a single instantaneous temporal slice (part) of a process. COSMO note: It is unclear why this is not identical to a region of space at some particular moment. spatiotemporal_instant COSMO note: in COSMO instants are not disjoint from intervals, they are merely the limiting case of intervals of zero lenght. A 'proper interval' is a legitimate concept, but would just be superfluos in COSMO, so this Type will include proper intervals and instants. BFO Definition: A connected space time region that endures for more than a single moment of time. BFO Examples: the space time region occupied by a process or by a fiat processual part spatiotemporal_interval A 'Scope' can be a physical area within which something operates or is effective, or a more abstract thing, such as a Context, as in the scope of some law. This is a broad and hetergeneous category use to represente the notions od 'range; or 'scope' or 'compass'. When posssible, more specific types should be used. Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'range' and sense 1 of 'scope' in WordNet: 1. (47) scope, range, reach, orbit, compass, ambit - (an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control: 'the range of a supersonic jet'; 'the ambit of municipal legislation'; 'within the compass of this article'; 'within the scope of an investigation'; 'outside the reach of the law'; 'in the political orbit of a world power') range range range1n scope scope1n COSMO: Context is a very general class of entities that can affect the truth of a logical sentence; within any given Context, the factual assertions should all be logically consistent. A Context may be relevant to the internal states and processes of a computational system, or may more generally describe the broad situation in which an Agent finds itself when processing information for the purpose of making a decision. For the latter agent context, the subtype 'SituationalContextComponent' is relevant. A Context can be a time interval, location, belief system, fictional world, theory, hypothetical world, counterfactual situation, segment of text, DatabaseGroup, or the state of our own real world, among other things. Contexts can be nested, combined, or intersected. For example, a Context consisting of a TimeInterval can be intersected with a Context consisting of a GeographicalArea to make a Context within with assertions are explicitly true only in that time and place. That does not mean, of course that the assertion cannot be true elsewhere; it just doesn't guranteee truth elsewhere. Every assertion in the COSMO ontology is implicitly true only in the context of the COSMO ontology, which is itself a theory. But that implicit qualification does not appear directly in any asertion - it can be explicitly mentioned if and when COSMO assertions are referenced in other ontologies. The nesting of Contexts provides a mechanism to create a 'lattice' of theories. In a subcontext for any given Context, all the assertions of the parent Context will be true in the subcontext, and additional assertions may also be true. In this respect, a Context is similar to the 'Microtheories' of the Cyc ontology system; it also has some resemblance to the 'Environments' discussed by Ballim and Wilks ('Artifical Believers', Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991). One specialized example of Context is a 'DatabaseGroup'. In a particular Organization, its set of Databases, if intended to represent some consistent group of facts, can be viewed and represented as a Context within which reasoning may be performed. NOTE that OpenCyc spatialThing does not necessarily have to be in our Space-Time; it can be in an abstract space. So this is not identical to DOLCE 'spatio-temporal-particular', which is a subclass. OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of all things that have a spatial extent or location relative to some other #$SpatialThing or in some embedding space. Note that to say that an entity is a member of this collection is to remain agnostic about two issues. First, a #$SpatialThing may be #$PartiallyTangible (e.g. #$Texas-State) or wholly #$Intangible (e.g. #$ArcticCircle or a line mentioned in a geometric theorem). Second, although we do insist on location relative to another spatial thing or in some embedding space, a #$SpatialThing might or might not be located in the actual physical universe. It is far from clear that all #$SpatialThings are so located: an ideal platonic circle or a trajectory through the phase space of some physical system (e.g.) might not be. If the intent is to imply location in the empirically observable cosmos, the user should employ this collection's specialization, #$SpatialThing-Localized. A #$SpatialThingTypeByDimensionality and a specialization of #$SpatialThing, each instance of which is either a one- or two- or three- (or higher-) dimensional spatial object. Examples include tangible or intangible spatially-localized dimensional objects, such as the edge of a tabletop, the surface of the tabletop, and the table itself, as well as abstract geometrical objects that are at least one-dimensional, such as a Platonic circle or cube. Specializations of this collection include #$ExtendedSpaceRegion, #$ShapedThing, and #$TwoOrHigherDimensionalThing. A #$SpatialThingTypeByDimensionality and a specialization of #$SpatialThing, each instance of which is either a two- or three- (or higher-) dimensional spatial object. Examples include tangible or intangible spatially-localized polydimensional objects, such as the flat surface of a tabletop and the table itself, as well as abstract geometrical objects that are at least two-dimensional, such as a Platonic cube. Specializations of this collection include #$PartiallyTangible, #$BilateralObject, and #$TwoDimensionalGeometricThing. 'doesNotHavePart' is a relation that specifies that the subject does not include the object as part, although other restrictions on the subject and object may not exclude such an interpretation. This relation is not confined to relating parts of PhysicalObjects to the wholes, but can apply to almost any kind of thing (including Events) that can be said to have parts. When the subject and object are of disjoint types, this can require rules to interpret properly. In one use, it specifies that an 'OuterSpaceRegion' (a region of space) is not part of the Earth: strictly speaking regions may be parts of other regions, but are not usually considered as being 'part' of a PysicalObject. When used in the negative with this relation,it is a shorthand for saying that no part of the PhysicalObject (e.g. Earth) is contained in the region specified (e.g. OuterSpace). Therefore this relation, if not specialized, requires rules to make the meanings more explicit - still @ToDo as of rev871. Rules should also specify that this is a disjoint relation with 'hasPart'. . COSMO note: In Cyc, called 'FluidTangibleThing'. In Cyc this is an object, though many of its subclasses are what would normally be considered as substances. We keep this Type as a PhysicalObject in COSMO (some piece of fluid matter), but the subtypes had to be disentangled. NOTE: this is not a state of matter, it is an Object that is fluid. Cyc: A subcollection of #$PartiallyTangible and an instance of #$TangibleStuffStateType. Each instance of #$FluidTangibleThing is a tangible thing that can flow. This includes gases, liquids, and granular fluids (i.e. tangible things that are #$Pourable, such as sand); see #$GaseousTangibleThing, #$LiquidTangibleThing, and #$GranularFluid. Instances of #$FluidTangibleThing include the air in Austin, the water in #$LakeErie, a particular chunk of snow, the sand on the beach at Malibu, and the mercury in a thermometer. Non-instances include an air molecule, a snowflake, a grain of sand, a boulder, and a hunk of bread dough. bd58d1e3-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 The Cyc term for 'Fluid'. This is an Object, not a state. A Gas or a LiquidSubstance. Includes noun senses 1 and 2 of 'fluid' in WordNet: 1. (26) fluid - (a substance that is fluid at room temperature and pressure) 2. (8) fluid - (a continuous amorphous substance that tends to flow and to conform to the outline of its container: a liquid or a gas) fluid fluid1n fluid2n Each subclass of LiquidSubstance labels a PhysicalSubstance which is liquid at normal temperatures and pressures. This category has been set as identical to the Cyc 'Liquid-StateOfMatter', though the original Cyc category is a physical object. This redefinition was done as part of the disentanglement of Cyc substances and objects. The Cyc category definition does not apply to this Type,and is closer to the COSMO 'LiquidObject'. The Cyc category was reinterpreted as a substance because it was used in Cyc predominantly as a parent class for what in COSMO are considered as substances. Water, gasoline, and vodka are examples. Although most substances are classified mainly by their composition, and may be solids or liquids (and sometimes gases) depending on temperature, there are some categories of substances that are conceptually in one state; ice is an example - it must be solid. A 'BathOil' must be a liquid. A LiquidSubstance is a PhysicalSubstance that must be liquid, at normal temperature and pressure. Any PhysicalSubstance in the Gaseous form, at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. A quantity of gas does not have a defined volume, but will expand to become uniformly distributed throughout its container. NOTE that a substance that happens to be gaseous at some elevated temperature is **not** necessarily a subtype of 'Gas'; likewise, a quantity of cooled or compressed gas that has become liquid due to cooling or compression can still be composed of a subtype of 'Gas' - for example Liquified Natural Gas. To classify a quantity of matter that is in the gaseous form, use 'GaseousObject'. This is equivalent to saying that it has the property of being 'gaseous' - but that property is not yet (v 0.45) defined in COSMO. At low enough temperature, all substances condense to a liquid or solid. 'isContainedIn' is the inverse of 'contains' and expresses a very general notion of some physical entity or region being 'contained' in some way in something else. This does not apply to abstract entities - see 'isContainedInSymbolicObject'. Although this relation implies that the contained thing 'isLocatedAtOrOn' the containing thing, this cannot be a subproperrty because substances are included in this relation. This generic location relation only specifies that the thing contained is somewhere either (1) within the convex hull of the containing thing, or (2) piled on or resting in an open-top container, being held in place by the force of gravity. Things that are contained in a container must move in synchronization with the container when the container is moved. Thus a flower in a vase, that extends above the top of the vase, 'isContainedIn' the vase. NOTE: the case of something that is partly in an object, extending beyond the limits of the object, but held to the object by some topological constraint is not included in this relation. That relation would be subsumed by 'isConnectedTo'. Includes to verb senses 1 and 2 of 'contain' in WordNet, except for the abstract notion of 'contain' (texts containing other texts or ideas); also, the range will satisfy the meaning of the word 'contents', which is part of sense 1 of 'content' in WordNet: 1. (119) incorporate, contain, comprise - (include or contain; have as a component; 'A totally new idea is comprised in this paper'; 'The record contains many old songs from the 1930's') 2. (39) hold, bear, carry, contain - (contain or hold; have within; 'The jar carries wine'; 'The canteen holds fresh water'; 'This can contains water') WN noun 'content': 1. (12) content - (everything that is included in a collection; 'he emptied the contents of his pockets'; 'the two groups were similar in content') inside inside inside2adv contain contain contain1v contain2v contents contents contents1n contains is a very general relation that specifies that some PhysicalObject or PhysicalSubstance.is contained, in some way, in the subject entity. The subject entity does not have to be a Container. For the 'containment' relation between AbstractSymbolicObject's (texts, documents, strings) use 'containsSymbolicObject' or its inverse 'isContainedInSymbolicObject'. @ToDo: needs review for relationship to substance containment (substances may not be needed here). This may be too hetereogeneous. NOTE that a Region of space can also 'contain' something. NOTE that this differs from 'isLocatedAt' in that the containment relation requires that the thing contained is not a part of the containing thing. Thus one PhysicalObject can contain another PhysicalObject only if the containing PhysicalObject has a cavity of some kind. This restriction does not hold for the general 'isLocatedAt' relation. However, 'contains' does not include Events as either subject or object. For Events, use 'occurredAt'. As a generic 'contains' relation, this relation will also include the 'containment' of Substances by PhysicalObjects. The relation on Substances is more properly handled by the specific substance relations 'hasConstituentSubstance' and 'containsSubstance' This 'contains' relation is more generic, to accommodate the ambiguous linguistic 'contains' assertion, to provide a direct conceptual definition of that notion. OBO_REL: 'contains' is similar to this relation, but has some differences OBO documentation for OBO rel 'contained_in': OBO Definition: C contained_in C' if and only if: given any instance c that instantiates C at a time t, there is some c' such that: c' instantiates C' at time t and c located_in c' at t, and it is not the case that c *overlaps* c' at t. (c' is a conduit or cavity.) OBO Comments: Containment obtains in each case between material and immaterial continuants, for instance: lung contained_in thoracic cavity; bladder contained_in pelvic cavity. Hence containment is not a transitive relation. If c part_of c1 at t then we have also, by our definition and by the axioms of mereology applied to spatial regions, c located_in c1 at t. Thus, many examples of instance-level location relations for continuants are in fact cases of instance-level parthood. For material continuants location and parthood coincide. Containment is location not involving parthood, and arises only where some immaterial continuant is involved. To understand this relation, we first define overlap for continuants as follows: c1 overlap c2 at t =def for some c, c part_of c1 at t and c part_of c2 at t. The containment relation on the instance level can then be defined (see definition above) isaPartOf is a very general 'part' relation applicable to spatial regions or objects in some space. This relation has no axioms associated with it because it is only an 'umbrella' relation that gathers together other relations having different meaning, so as to provide an anchor point for the ambiguous linguistic notion of 'part' It cannot be transitive, because it subsumes the relation of a member to the group, which is not transitive. But some of its subrelations are transitive. NOTE that to say that something is a part of something else - or inversely, that something has a part - can present issues of implementation and some nuances of interpretation. Regarding implementation, if one asserts that every object ?O of type ?T has a part of type ?P, then for each individual of the ?T type it follows that some part of type ?P must exist. Then the reasoner must be instructed what to do if there is no individual of type ?P that is specifically asserted to be a part of object ?O. One option is to refuse to accept data asserting exstence of object ?O because no part is instantiated. Another option is to automatically instantiate *every* implied part - this can be done in a FOL reasoner by 'Skolemization' - creating a Skolem function that returns the individual. One may want alternative options - to be able to assert a necessary part relation, but *not* to create a Skolem individual if the part itself is not also asserted. In interpretation, it will be necessary to decide whether, for a type ?T that has necessary parts, whether the parts must be in place for an instane of type ?T to exist. If a musical instrument is borken down into its parts in a carrying case, is there a musical instrument in the case, or doe the instrument only exist when it is assembed and functional? These issues are not decided in COSMO, but the 'part' relations can be asserted at the individual or type level, and the proper interpretation of such relations will need to be determined before an implementation can reason accurately with the knowledge in the ontology. NOTE: this and its subproperties are usually instance-level relations, but types are included because they are used in some of the subrelations. To express that some physical object type is *typically* (but not necessarily) a part of another physical object type, use the type-level relation, 'isTypicallyaPhysicalPartOf'. An example would be a limb of an animal, which can be severed, and when thus separated may still be properly called a animal's limb - but not normally connected. The inverse of 'hasConstituentSubstance'. hasConstituentSubstance relates physical objects or regions to the substance(s) which form some part of the composition of the object or region. The component substance pointed to in this relation does not have to be the main component, and the object does not have to have a uniform distribution of substance types. If the component substance does form a larger weight fraction than any other substance, the relation 'consistsMostlyOfSubstance' should be used instead. One could say that a {shovel hasConstituentSubstance Steel}, even if the handle is wooden. We can use a relation which also specifies the actual weight fraction of each substance, but such a relation would be ternary, and cannot be directly supported as an OWL 'property'. NOTE that In Cyc the 'substances' (or stuffs) were represented as objects made of a particular substance. In COSMO we distinguish the object from its composition, and this relation specifies, where it makes sense to do so, what the substance compostion of particular objects is. NOTE that this relation is a subProperty of the generic 'hasPart' relation. The 'hasPart' relation has no implications, and is used only as an umbrella to collect all the 'part' relations that may ber used in language. The notion of a substance being a 'part' of an object may be the least common use of 'part', but it is found, and this subproperty relation allows it to be used in this ontology. consist consist consist4v consistsMostlyOfSubstance relates physical objects or physical object types that have a relatively homogeneous spatial distribution of component substances to the substance(s) which form the dominant composition. If the component substance does not form a larger weight fraction than any other substance, the relation 'hasConstituentSubstance' should be used instead. Thus a drinking glass will be composed of glass, a lake of water, a structural I-beam of steel. In Cyc the 'substances' (or stuffs) were represented as objects made of a particular substance. In COSMO we distinguish the object from its composition, and this relation specifies, where it makes sense to do so, what the substance composition of particular objects is. Any Object that is in the form of a gas at the time it is referred to. Gases may have suspended solids (such as in a smoke), but will still diffuse freely throughout the container it is in, or continue to diffuse if uncontained. In Cyc referred to as a 'GaseousTangibleThing'. consist consist consist4v COSMO note: This Cyc category is reinterpreted in COSMO to include certain subtypes of 'PhysicalSubstance', that are not subcategorized solely on the basis of composition, or inherent properties depending on composition, but of other attributes, such as state of matter (e.g. SolidSubstance or Gas). One such category is 'CommodityProduct' which treats commercial products sold in quantities (such as potatoes, onions) as 'substances'. Cyc: A collection of collections, and a specialization of #$TemporalStuffType. Each instance of #$ExistingStuffType is a collection of things (including portions of things) which are both temporally and spatially stufflike. Division in time or space does not destroy the stufflike quality of the object (down to a certain granularity). (#$isa STUFFTYPE #$ExistingStuffType) implies both (i) for most instances STUFF of STUFFTYPE, for any proper physical part (see #$physicalParts) PART of STUFF, PART is also an instance of STUFFTYPE and (ii) for all instances STUFF of STUFFTYPE, for most proper physical parts PART of STUFF, PART is also an instance of STUFFTYPE. For example, every piece of wood is temporally stufflike: if W-168 is a piece of wood during 1996, then it's also a piece of wood for the one-minute time-slice 9:05am 7/7/96. It's also spatially stufflike: if we take that piece of wood W-168 and cut it in half, we have two things which are both pieces of wood. Since every piece of wood is both temporally and spatially stufflike, #$Wood is an instance of #$ExistingStuffType. Other instances of #$ExistingStuffType include the collections #$AppleJuice, #$IceCream, #$Diamond, #$WaxedPaper, and #$StriatedMuscle. See the comment for #$StuffType to learn more about the distinctions between, and the need for, these four collections: #$StuffType, #$ObjectType, #$ExistingStuffType, and #$ExistingObjectType. bd59f2ea-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A PhysicalSubstance that is not a single chemical entity, but has more than one component. CYC: A specialization of #$PartiallyTangible. Each instance of #$Mixture is a homogeneous partially tangible thing composed of two or more different constituents (see the predicate #$constituents) which have been mixed. The inputs to this mixing do not form chemical bonds among themselves, and at a later time the mixture may be separated back out into these inputs. Specializations of #$Mixture include #$Blood, #$Mud, #$Air, and #$CarbonatedBeverage. Note that each instance of #$Mixture has a composition but not a structure; thus, the following are _not_ instances of #$Mixture, since all have some structure: a wet sponge, a person, or a portion of plywood. bd58e89f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO NOTE: a 'NaturalTangibleStuff' can be a substance that is still in situ in its natural enviroment, but it can also be an ArtificialSubstance, if it is extracted from its natural place and cut or rendered into a form for use by people. Cyc: An instance of #$ExistingStuffType and a sub-collection of #$PartiallyTangible. Each instance of #$NaturalTangibleStuff is a naturally occurring partially tangible thing. Specializations of #$NaturalTangibleStuff include #$LandStuff, #$Wood, and #$Air. Man-made materials are _not_ instances of #$NaturalTangibleStuff. bd58d55a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$GaseousTangibleThing. Each instance of #$Air is one 'piece' among all the portions of the atmosphere of the Earth, considered as a substance present in various places, in various quantities, under various pressures, etc. Examples: the AirInAustin; the stuffy air in my office; the thin air atop Annapurna. See also #$TheAtmosphereQuaSinglePieceOfStuff, which is all ambient #$Air on the planet taken as a single object. SUMO: Air is the gaseous stuff that makes up the atmosphere surrounding Earth. Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'air' in WordNet: 1. (735) air - (a mixture of gases (especially oxygen) required for breathing; the stuff that the wind consists of; 'air pollution'; 'a smell of chemicals in the air'; 'open a window and let in some air'; 'I need some fresh air') bd58c00c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 air air air1n More abstract than 'FunctionalSystem' - need not have a purpose, such as the Solar System. The collection of all systems - complex objects that decompose into simpler components that, by virtue of the relations among them, form a recognizable, cohesive whole. Notable specializations include #$PathSystem and #$FunctionalSystem. The components of an instance of #$System can be identified using #$systemComponents. bfd5eed5-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A System consists of a group of two or more physical objects that are designed (by people or evolution) to work together to perform some function, plus the AttributeValues attached to those objects, and the relations among those objects - the attributes and relations are component elements of the Group, thus distinguishing a System from a simple group of Objects (and excluding natural 'systems' such as the Solar system, not evolved biologically). There is therefore some significant relation between any Object in a System and some other Object in the System. The System is an aggregate consisting not only of the Objects, but also of the relations between them. This is the basic Entity that participates in Situations. The Attributes of the System as a whole are not component elements of the Group that comprise the system. A PersistentState of a System may include any subset of the Group of Attributes and Relations that are part of the System, and possibly some relations of the System as a whole to its external environment (e.g. orientation). NOTE that a Group of objects that all perform a similar function is not a System unless the performance of the function of one somehow depends on the presence or operation of the others. For example, a group of window air conditioners installed in windows in different parts of a building is *not* a System, unless they are somehow controlled by a common control mechanism. Cyc: A Cyc collection. Each instance is a special kind of #$Group that exists in time and interacts over the course of time in ways that underpin controlled application of resources and internal information exchange and processing by the system as a whole in order to perform certain tasks which often can themselves be considered as functional roles in a larger system. #$FunctionalSystems have some of the characteristics of what James Grier Miller calls 'living systems'. Instances of #$BiologicalLivingObject, #$Organization, and #$GeopoliticalEntity are all considered to be #$FunctionalSystems in the #$FunctionalRoleAnalysisMt. NOTE: In Cyc something as simple as a shield or TurtleShell can qualify as a 'System' so the requirement for two objects may need to be taken liberally: a shield needs a handle to function, so the handle and plate of the shield can qualify as the two objects. Usually a System has several distinct Objects that interactin some way beyond merely being attached to each other. @@ToDo: Although this generic notion of System is not a PhysicalObject, it can have PhysicalObjects as subtypes and instances. Representing a particular PhysicalObject or type of Object as a System is to assert a view of the PhysicalObject as something functional, and to provide a formal mechanism for discussing the structure and states of the System. The restriction that requires specifying an 'ObjectGroup' (or GroupType) will force the ontologist to specify at least some of the components of a System - the ObjectGroup specified should but does not have to include all of the Objects that characterize the System; therefore one may specify that an Object is a System but not be required to describe all of the component objects, just some of them. The view of a PhysicalObject as a System may at first seem to be a contradiciton: how can something be a GroupOfObjects and also be a System, which is a Group containing the same Objects, plus other things -(Attributes and Relations). This is not a Contradiction, precisely because an Object that is viewed as a System is not merely a GroupOfObjects - the view as a System describes the Object as a whole, whereas a View of its component parts is only a partial view of the Object. As of v0.52 this inclusion of different views of a complex object does not appear to be logically incoherent, and it does not appear that these alternate views will cause any problems. This is in a way reminiscent of Cyc's CompositeTangibleAndIntangible category, but judiciously used. Possibly the relations should be considered not as a part of the System, but an attribute, and that could avoid any logical problems.For later. Because a System is more than just the Objects it contains (it includes the relations), it is not represented as an ObjectGroup, but is related to the Objects it contains by the 'containsObjects' relation. Formally, the relations among the objects are part of the system but at this point it is not clear that attempting to represent those relations generically will be useful. Perhaps that will be useful at a future point. Note that a System, whether artifactual or natural, must have a DesignFunction. If the System is broken, diseased, or malfunctioning it may not be able to perform that function, but will still retain its identity as a System because the identity arises from the purpose (human or evolutionary) for which the System was created. isNearTo specifies that some GenericLocation (an Object or a Region) is 'near' to another, but (usually) not touching the other. 'near' is relative to the size of the things being related. To be 'near' another region or object, the distance from one Object or Region to the other must be within two diameters of the larger object or region. NOTE that 'isSupportedBy' is a subproperty of 'isNearTo'. If two objects are touching, that can be represented as a 'TouchingState'. In SUMO treated as an attribute: SUMO: (Near) The relation of common sense adjacency. Note that, if an object is Near another object, then the objects are not connected.. This is the most generic generic 'location' relation, and differs from its subProperty 'isLocatedAt' only in that to be 'located at or on' includes the possibility that some pile of objects may be located in some open container and extend beyond the top of the container, but will move when that container moves because it is held to the container by the force of gravity or by some topological constraint. The subproperty 'isLocatedAt' means that the thing located is wholly located within the spatial region coextensive with the ConvexHull of the thing or place where it is located. Thus a pile of coal in an open railway coal car can be said to be 'contained' in the coal car even though it may extend above the top of the coal car; it will go wherever the coal car goes, as long as it satisfies this relation. Likewise, flowers in a vase are located 'at or on' the vase, though they typically extend beyond the top of the vase, and the top of the flowers may even be above the vase by more than the height of the vase. The 'isContainedIn' relation is a subproperty of this relation; therefore if {?x isContainedIn ?Obj} then {?x isLocatedAtOrOn ?Obj}. NOTE, however that 'isSupportedBy' is not a subtype of 'isLocatedAtOrOn' because the supporting object may be flat and extensive, and the supported object may extend well above the surface of the supporting object.. A general 'location' relation for objects and regions and substances (but not for Events - use 'occurredAt'). The location can be a region of space (connected or disconnected) or an object (physical or abstract). Being 'located' at an Object means being located within the ConvexHull of the Object; therefore a Hole in an Object, which contains no part of the Object 'isLocatedAt' that Object. Also, recall that a GeographicalRegion includes some space above the surface of that region, so it is possible that ?obj isLocateAt a GeographicalRegion even if it is in the air not far above the surface of that region. If a pile of objects or a large object is 'contained' in an open-top container, and extends above the top of that container, it cannot be said to be 'located at' that container, in this sense. For that case, use 'isContainedIn' or its parent 'isLocatedAtOrOn'. The value (object) of this relation answers the question 'where is it?' (for the subject) in some sense. Somewhat non-intuitively, this relation can be used to specify that some set of beliefs (a BeliefSystem) is held by one or more people, since the BeliefSystem is considered an InformationStore that can have a physical location; that is, beliefs are located in the heads of people, or of Groups of people. However, NOTE that specific instances of a disease cannot be 'located' in people by this relation, because a Disease is considered as an Event. Use 'occurredAt' for relating specific instances of Disease to particular people or groups of people. NOTE that when it is asserted that a 'Substance' isLocatedAt some place, that is a stand-in for the more logically meaningful assertion that some unspecified quantity of a Substance is located at that place. NOTE that this is an instance-level relation and describes where an object is actually located at some particular time. For describing where objects typically are located (e.g. parts of the body), use 'isNormallyLocatedAt', a relation that can take a individual Object or an ObjectType as the subject NOTE: 'isLocatedAt' may be used with an instance of 'TimeAndPlace' (a four-dimensional portion of space-time) in the object position of the relation, to specify the location of some thing (but not Events) over some interval of time, using a binary relation. Although this relation is transitive, there are permitted range instances that cannot bw located at some permitted domain instances: for example, a 'TimeAndPlace' will never be locatedAt an Object or region that is not itself Four-dimensional, unless the domain instance is nominally a TimeAndPlace, but with the Time dimension of zero length, in which case the domain instance is effectively three-dimensional. But in general, if the subject is a TimeAndPlace, the Object should also be a TimeAndPlace, not a Region or Object. To avoid unintended errors, this restriction should be encoded as a constraint. NOTE: this relation is close in meaning to that of the OBO_REL relation 'located_in' (http://www.obofoundry.org/ro/#OBO_REL:located_in). In OBO some relations may also be used on Types to create an implicit restriction, but such usage is not part of COSMO, and that usage would need to be represented as a rule. OBO_REL: located_in (see http://www.obofoundry.org/ro/) OBO comments for located_in: Location as a relation between instances: The primitive instance-level relation c located_in r at t reflects the fact that each continuant is at any given time associated with exactly one spatial region, namely its exact location. Following we can use this relation to define a further instance-level location relation - not between a continuant and the region which it exactly occupies, but rather between one continuant and another. c is located in c1, in this sense, whenever the spatial region occupied by c is part_of the spatial region occupied by c1. Note that this relation comprehends both the relation of exact location between one continuant and another which obtains when r and r1 are identical (for example, when a portion of fluid exactly fills a cavity), as well as those sorts of inexact location relations which obtain, for example, between brain and head or between ovum and uterus 'isInsideOf' is a specialization of 'isLocatedAt' specifying that the subject is located within the Region defined by the outer limits of the containing Object or Region. This includes the notions of being a physical part of something, and being contained inside a container, as well as being within some spatial reagion. Those individual senses are subrelations of this relation. This relation also includes the sense of one substance being contained in another; even though that sense is already represented by 'hasComponentSubstance', the notion of 'inside' can include the notion of being part of a mixture, so it is included here as a way to relate these general notions. inside inside inside2adv occupiesTheRegion relates a PhysicalObject to the region that it occupies. The object should occupy most of the region, and in the case of GeographicRegions, may be the object that defines the limits of the region, such as one of the oceans. A region of space containing gas or liquid or vacuum or matter more rarified than a gas - neither a physical object nor a physical substance. A FreeSpaceRegion is a Region in which PhysicalObjects can move, but it is only the space, and not the contents of that space. A FreeSpaceRegion can be defined by the space occupied by some object, as in 'UnderWater'. Thus locations in the Ocean may be a 'FreeSpaceRegion', but the water in that region is merely present or located in that region, the water is not the region itself. Cyc ('EmptySpaceRegion') A specialization of #$SpaceRegion-Empirical whose instances are connected regions of empty space located in the empirically observable universe. The meaning of empty depends on context. In a high-energy physics microtheory where empty is defined as containing no particles, an empty space region would be a complete vacuum (see also #$Vacuum). In #$AmbientConditionsMt an empty space region would be occupied by a piece of #$Atmosphere. An undersea context could treat empty space regions as filled with seawater. An instance of #$EmptySpaceRegion is intangible, and not to be confused with the material - if any - that occupies it (cf. #$FreeSpaceContent). Corresponds to noun sense 2 of 'space' in WordNet: 2. (18) space - - (an empty area (usually bounded in some way between things); "the architect left space in front of the building"; "they stopped at an open space in the jungle"; "the space between his teeth") bd58ee65-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 space space space2n EarthsAtmosphereRegion is that region including all the places above the surface of the Earth, outside of a building, but not beyond the atmosphere (whose limit is ca. 100 miles up). It is any outdoor place that an airplane or a bird or an insect can fly. This is not the object that consists of the atmosphere, but is a location defined by the location of the atmosphere, and therefore defined by the location of the Earth. This will be used mostly to describe the region in which aircraft fly. 53E20 The first 50 miles (80 km) of the Earth's atmosphere contain over 99% of its mass. Calculated according to their relative volumes, the gaseous constituents of the atmosphere are nitrogen, 78.09%; oxygen, 20.95%; argon, 0.93%; carbon dioxide, 0.03%; and minute traces of neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, xenon, and ozone. The lower atmosphere contains varying amounts of water vapor, which determine its humidity. At the height of 12-13 miles there is a layer with a relatively high concentration of ozone. The mass estimate is from: http://www.answers.com/topic/atmosphere. The number in Wikipedia and several other sources center around 5E21 grams. For comparison, the mass of the Earth is 5.98E27 grams. An OuterSpaceLocation is any place (including objects) outside the Earth's atmosphere. One caution - because the Earth is an AstronomicalObject, not all AstronomicalObjects are OuterSpace Locations. The subtype 'OuterSpaceObject' includes all physical objects outside the Earth's atmosphere. NOTE that 'OuterSpaceRegion' is the Region corresponding to this location. But Regions are disjoint from PhysicalObjects, so this type is not identical to 'OuterSpaceRegion'. OuterSpace is any part of the region beyond the limits of the Earth's atmosphere, including locations on or inside of other planets. It is disjoint with GeographicalArea. It is also disjoint with locations under the Earth's surface (which are not included in GeographicalArea). Called 'SpaceRegion' in Cyc and SUMO: Cyc: A specialization of both #$SpatialThing and #$IntangibleIndividual (qq.v.) whose instances are regions of space that exclusively act as possible locations for other spatial objects, and thus are immobile. A space region might be three-, two-, one-, or zero-dimensional; and spatial objects occupy such regions accordingly. Three-dimensional space regions (see #$ChunkOfSpace) can be occupied by solid objects. Two-dimensional space regions (or #$SpaceSurfaces) can be occupied by a purely two-dimensional objects. And similarly for one-dimensional space regions (#$SpaceLines) and zero-dimensional space regions (#$SpacePoints). Another important specialization of #$SpaceRegion is #$SpaceRegion-Empirical, whose instances are pieces of the embedding space for spatio-temporal objects (see #$SpatialThing-Localized). For more on spatial location and occupancy, see #$AbsoluteLocationalPredicate and its instances. SUMO: The class of all Regions which are not GeographicAreas. NOTE that 'OuterSpaceLocation' is the Location corresponding to this Region. But Regions are disjoint from PhysicalObjects, and this type includes physical objects like planets and stars, so this type is not identical to 'OuterSpaceLocation, but is a subtype'. be5c5d8b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 The Cyc and SUMO terms for 'OuterSpaceRegion' A specialization of #$TwoOrHigherDimensionalThing and #$SpaceRegionLimit. This is the collection of all surfaces, tangible or intangible (see #$Surface-Physical and #$Surface-Intangible), of spatial things. Each instance of #$Surface-Generic is a spatial thing that has extent in at least two dimensions, and either has no thickness (i.e. is a purely two-dimensional object) or has an insignificant thickness compared to its length and width. (If it is a closed surface, e.g. an apple skin, then any significant subregion of it must have insignificant thickness compared to that subregion's length and width.) Thus a surface might be two- or three-dimensional; tangible or intangible; spatially connected or not; it might be flat, curved, folded, or crumpled. Other examples of surfaces are the skin of a basketball, the face-up side of a table top, and a particular face of an abstract cube. Other specializations of #$Surface-Generic are #$FlatSurface, #$Surface-Closed, and #$Surface-Open. NOTE: the abstract sense of 'surface' doesn't seem to occur in WordNet. surface A specialization of #$Surface-Generic (q.v.).This is the collection of open surfaces of (tangible or intangible) spatial objects. Each instance of #$Surface-Open has some boundary, such as an edge, perimeter, or hole. Examples include the top surface of a tabletop, the surface of a whiffle ball, a slightly cracked eggshell, and the skin of an apple with a bite taken from it. Non-examples are a basketball skin and an intact eggshell; cf. #$Surface-Closed. Note that 'hole' here is intended in its colloquial, human-scale sense, according to which (e.g.) a wiffle ball has holes but a baseball does not (even though at some fine-grained level the latter does have tiny holes). bd8cb302-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 GeographicalRegion_Cyc-includes_other_planets In COSMO, this type includes any region on or near the surface of a planet, including the region that contains its atmosphere. But the usage here differs from that in Cyc, and this category is not a physical object. For physical objects at the surface of a planet, see 'PlanetarySurfaceObject'. Cyc comment: A specialization of #$GeographicalThing and #$Surface-Physical. Each instance of #$GeographicalRegion is a tangible spatial region that includes some piece of the surface of a planet (usually #$PlanetEarth), and may be represented on a map of the planet. This includes purely topographical regions like mountains and underwater spaces, places defined by demographics (e.g., language areas) and territory otherwise demarcated (e.g. #$TimeZones). In dualist geopolitical contexts [see #$DualistGeopoliticalMt], instances of #$GeopoliticalEntity are also considered to be instances of #$GeographicalRegion. In all cases the region in question must contain some tangible component with which it is possible to make physical contact. The instances of #$GeographicalRegion contrast in this respect with the instances of #$GeographicalThing-Intangible, which are wholly intangible. Examples of #$GeographicalRegion include #$RockyMountainStates-USRegion, the #$ContinentOfAustralia, #$SinaiPeninsula, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts - #$YaleUniversity and #$CityOfPittsburghPA. Some important types of regions are represented by the sub-collections #$LanguageArea, #$TimeZone, #$PostalCodeRegion, #$EcologicalRegion, #$ConstructionSite, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts -- #$GeopoliticalEntity. No instances of #$GeographicalRegion are wholly indoor locations. GeographicalRegion[Cyc-includes_other_planets] Each GeographicalRegion is a connected one-,two- or three-dimensional region of space located on or near the surface of some astronomical body, not necessarily the Earth. For 3-dimensonal regions specifically on the Earth, use 'GeographicalArea'. It is understood that the regions defined are stationary with respect to some coordinate system in which the astronomical object itself is considered to be stationary. The astronomical object itself (most commonly the Earth) will of course be rotating and moving through space, and those motions are ignored when the relative locations defined by 'GeographicalRegion' are used. A GeographicalRegion will include some portion of the space above the solid material that defines the region, and below the surface; at this point (v 0.44) we have not precisely specified how much of the space above or below the surface is included. COSMO note: this Cyc category is reinterpreted as representing only spatial regions - points, areas, or volumes, on or near the surface of some planetary body (to clearly specify the Earth, use the subtype 'GeographicalArea'), but this does not represent any of the physical objects that might exist in that region. The discussion of 'tangible' in the Cyc documentation below suggests the inclusion of physical objects, but that is not the intent of this COSMO cateegory. Though this category does not include any physical objects, one may use 'GeographicalObject' to specify all of the objects in any GeographicalRegion, if desired. Cyc: A specialization of #$GeographicalThing and #$Surface-Physical. Each instance of #$GeographicalRegion is a tangible spatial region that includes some piece of the surface of a planet (usually #$PlanetEarth), and may be represented on a map of the planet. This includes purely topographical regions like mountains and underwater spaces, places defined by demographics (e.g., language areas) and territory otherwise demarcated (e.g. #$TimeZones). In dualist geopolitical contexts [see #$DualistGeopoliticalMt], instances of #$GeopoliticalEntity are also considered to be instances of #$GeographicalRegion. In all cases the region in question must contain some tangible component with which it is possible to make physical contact. The instances of #$GeographicalRegion contrast in this respect with the instances of #$GeographicalThing-Intangible, which are wholly intangible. Examples of #$GeographicalRegion include #$RockyMountainStates-USRegion, the #$ContinentOfAustralia, #$SinaiPeninsula, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts - #$YaleUniversity and #$CityOfPittsburghPA. Some important types of regions are represented by the sub-collections #$LanguageArea, #$TimeZone, #$PostalCodeRegion, #$EcologicalRegion, #$ConstructionSite, and - in dualist geopolitical contexts -- #$GeopoliticalEntity. No instances of #$GeographicalRegion are wholly indoor locations. WN noun 'area': 1. (620) area, country - (a particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography); 'it was a mountainous area'; 'Bible country') WN 'place' 1. (79) topographic point, place, spot - (a point located with respect to surface features of some region; 'this is a nice place for a picnic') area area area1n place place place1n spot spot spot1n GeographicalArea is (in spite of its name) a three-dimensional Region of space that is on or close to the surface of the Earth. This is the category that should be used to specify areas of the Earth, such as the areas defined by Countries and ruled by their governments. Although three-dimensional, most GeographicalAreas will be relatively thin and sheet-like in shape, as the areas of interest are close to the Earth's surface. NOTE that as a Region, it is disjoint with a PhysicalObject. COSMO note: in Cyc this was 'GeographicalRegion'. In COSMO, Geographical reasoning uses only the spatial points, areas and volumes that are defined relative to some set of Geodetic coordinates. The physical objects that occupy that region are related to the region, but are classified separately under 'GeographicalObject'. Note that to be consistent with SUMO usage, one-and two-dimensional regions are not included in this categeory. They can be represented by 'GeographicalRegion'. GeographicalArea (SUMO) includes Earth areas only SUMO: A geographic location on Earth, generally having definite boundaries. SUMO: Note that this differs from its immediate superclass Region in that a GeographicArea is a three-dimensional Region of the earth. Accordingly, all astronomical objects other than earth and all one-dimensional and two-dimensional Regions are not classed under GeographicArea. Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'area' and noun sense 1 of 'place' and sense 1 of 'spot' and to part of sense 3 of 'region' in WordNet; NOTE that this type is not a point, as suggested by the Wordnet gloss, but a region, as no physical object can be wholly located at a point.and this type must accommodate whole PhysicalObjects.: WN noun 'area': 1. (620) area, country - (a particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography); 'it was a mountainous area'; 'Bible country') WN 'region': 3. (2) region - (a large indefinite location on the surface of the Earth; 'penguins inhabit the polar regions') WN 'place' 1. (79) topographic point, place, spot - (a point located with respect to surface features of some region; 'this is a nice place for a picnic') bd588009-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 area area area1n place place place1n spot spot spot1n region region3n An #$ObjectType and a specialization of #$OneOrHigherDimensionalThing (q.v.). Each instance of #$ShapedThing is a spatial object that has some well-defined shape (though what counts as a well-defined shape can vary from context to context); see #$objectShapeType. Specializations of #$ShapedThing include #$TwoDimensionalGeometricThing and #$AnimalShapedThing. Contrast with #$AmorphousThing. c0946b98-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A #$SpatialThingTypeByDimensionality and a specialization of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing, #$TwoOrHigherDimensionalThing, and #$ShapedThing (qq.v.). Each instance of #$ThreeDimensionalGeometricThing is a three-dimensional geometrically-describable object. Examples include spatially-localized objects, such as the Pentagon, as well as abstract 3-D geometric objects. Specializations of this collection include #$Polyhedron, #$Ellipsoid, and #$Hemisphere. SUMO: The class of GeometricFigures that have position and an extension along three dimensions, viz. geometric solids like polyhedrons and cylinders. c0fbbe61-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 An EvaluativeAttribute is a QualitativeAttributeValue for some entity, concrete or abstract, that reflects the judgment of an IntelligentAgent regarding that entity. the judgment may be objective or subjective, but will be relative to some purpose. @ToDo: in assigning an 'EvaluativeAttribute', it should be necessary to specify the agent who has assigned that attribute value - but at this point (rev833) there is no mechanism for specifying the agent directly, other than in a reified assertion. Any attribute that specifically describes the shape of an object. Redefined as an attribute value. Cyc: The collection of objects with a structure that divides into containing cells or compartments. This includes both multi-cellular organisms and non-living cellular objects like beehives. 6d619d58-74bc-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae The property of an object that has distinctive angles, such as a polygon or polyhedron. This does not mean that there can be no curves; a filled semicircle will be Angular because has two prominent angles in it.. The property of a round object, of two or more dimensions. A Round object should have a surface that is closed and concave, and should have no distinctive angles; if it has any angles at all, they should not form a significant factor in categorizing the shape (they may be in parts of the overall shape that are small relative to the whole) As of v0.49 this is only vaguely specified, mostly by the substypes 'circular', 'elliptical'. An Object can be Round in one plane, and elongaged in a different dimension, such as a Cylinder, but in that case it is the cross-section that is Round, not the whole object. Corresponds approximately to part of adjective sense 1 of 'round' in WordNet, but a Round thing can vary significantly from circularity. 1. (13) round, circular - (having a circular shape): round round round1adj A specialization of both #$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$ShapedThing. Each instance of #$RoundObject is a two- or three-dimensional object with a round shape. Specializations of #$RoundObject include #$Circle, #$Ellipse, #$Sphere and #$RingShapedObject. Examples include spatially localized objects, such as the equator, as well as abstract shapes. COSMO NOTE: This is an approximate concept. We included mostly rounded objects with some edges, such as lenses and other disks-shaped objects in this category. For 'diameter' relations, the largest diameter would be what is specified. A RoundObject will in general have no acute angles that are prominent or necessary: a lens that has sharp edges is still a RoundObject because the sharp edges occupy a very small part of the lens, and are not essential to its properties. NOTE that being Convex does not imply that one is also Round - Convex objects can have sharp edges. c1005f91-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of both #$RoundObject and #$ThreeDimensionalGeometricThing (qq.v.). Each instance of #$Ellipsoid is a three-dimensional object such that the planar sections along its respective internal axes are #$Ellipses. In other words, the shape of such objects should be roughly describable by taking some two dimensional ellipse and rotating it around its major axis in three-space. Note that #$Sphere and its generalization #$Spheroid are specializations of #$Ellipsoid. bfd0a066-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$Ellipsoid (q.v.). Each instance of #$Spheroid is an ellipsoid that is (at least) very nearly spherical in shape (see the specialization #$Sphere). The degree to which an ellipsoid may deviate from a perfect sphere and still qualify as a spheroid is difficult to specify precisely and partly depends on the context; but it seem correct in everyday contexts to consider (e.g.) #$PlanetEarth a spheroid and a jelly bean a mere ellipsoid. cc29be1e-e6cd-41d6-8eed-98a95b650fc7 A surface attribute meaning that the surface's overall shape is dominated by an outward bulge or mound, or consists of projecting corners between planes. In most contexts, it may have relatively small subregions which are concave or flat, etc., so long as overall shape is convex. Viewing something as convex assumes a perspective. From the opposite perspective, on the 'other side', a #$Convex surface would look #$Concave. 5b6cb4b4-74be-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae A specialization of #$PhysicalObject. Each instance of #$ConvexTangibleObject is a tangible object that is convex; i.e., that has no significant concave surfaces, cavities or crevices (where the size of allowable minor concavities may depend on the context). Each instance of #$ConvexTangibleObject occupies about the same space as its convex hull - see #$ConvexHullFn and #$ConvexHullSpaceFn. A solid physical sphere or cube is an instance of #$ConvexTangibleObject, but a cup or doughnut cannot be. c0b9215a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A PhysicalObject that is approximately in the shape of a sphere (spheroid), such as PlanetEarth or a baseball.. A GravitationallyBoundObject is an object that has a mass and density sufficiently large that it will (eventually) settle out from the Earth's atmosphere, in the absent of agitation or shear forces that keep it suspended. This Type is created to provide a more restricted Type of PhysicalObjects that will be the domain and range for relations of 'support' and 'on top of', excluding submicroscopic objects for which such relations make no sense. The subtype 'MacrosopicObject' and its subtypes will be those most commonly used with the 'support' relations. This type of Object need not be solid: portions of a liquid can be supported by surfaces and containers. A is a PhysicalObject that is visible and large enough to be perceived by human beings without the aid of a microscope or other aid to viewing small objects. It could be of any size, but will typically be used for objects no larger than the planet Earth. Larger objects will be 'LargeObject's or 'AstronomicalObject's. A MacroscopicObject that is much larger than a Person, i.e. it should be bigger than a large house. there is no upper limit on the size. A RigidObject is a SolidObject that will not distort its shape greater than 10% in the vertical dimension when supported by three or four sharply pointed rigid objects, placed at the periphery of the RigidObject, in the Earth's gravitational field. This will exclude most semi-solid gels. Long beams may fail this test, though the same beam in a shorter length (having to support less mass in the middle) may pass the test. Thus rigidity is a property of objects, not of materials, and depends not only on the inherent hardness of a material, but its shape and size. A thin sheet of a material will not be rigid though a beam of the same material can be. Any planet orbiting any sun, including the Earth. We make the distinction in order to avoid specifying that the Earth is located in the 'OuterSpaceVacuum', which is outside of Earth. Corresponds approximately to noun sense 3 of 'planet' in WordNet, but does not include asteroids or near-planets like Pluto' is now judged to be: 3. planet - (any celestial body (other than comets or satellites) that revolves around a star) planet planet3n The Planet Earth, orbiting Sol. The planet where humans evolved. By COSMO convention, to the Earth is not located in the OuterSpaceVacuum, which is all parts of the Universe that does not include the Earth. Some Properties of the Earth (http://www.rwic.und.edu/unitconversions.php) Mass of the earth = 5.98E24 kg Mass of the oceans = 1.32E21 kg Mass of the earth's atmosphere = 5.29E18 kg Mean radius of the earth = 6371 km Mean distance between earth and the sun = 149.7E6 km Mean gravitational acceleration at earth's surface = 9.807 m/s(squared) Speed of rotation of a surface point on the earth's equator = 460 m/s Angular velocity of the earth = 7.29E-5 /s Corresponds to noun sense 1 of 'Earth' and sense 4 of 'world' in WordNet: 1. (57) Earth, world, globe - (the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on; 'the Earth moves around the sun'; 'he sailed around the world') 5.9736E27 earth Earth Earth1n world world world4n COSMO Note: a GeopoliticalArea is the spatial region containing the physical portion of earth controlled by a Geopolitical agent (the government of a country or subdivision). It is not a physical object, but contains all objects on or near the earth's surface, so that an object 'locatedAt' any region will also be 'locatedAt' any larger region containing] the first region. SUMO: Any GeographicArea which is associated with some sort of political structure. This class includes Lands, Cities, districts of cities, counties, etc. Note that the identity of a GeopoliticalArea may remain constant after a change in borders. isaClaimedTerritoryOf relates a geographical area with recognized boundaries to some Government organization that claims control over that territory. In SUMO this relation is called 'claimedTerritory'. The inverse relation is 'claimsJurisdictionOverTerritory' SUMO: (claimedTerritory ?AREA ?POLITY) means that some right over the GeographicArea ?AREA is claimed by the Agent or GeopoliticalArea ?POLITY. If two politically independent states or agents claim the same area, that area is a 'disputed territory'. claimsJurisdictionOverTerritory is he inverse of 'isaClaimedTerritoryOf'. It points from a GeopoliticalEntity (i.e. a government) to one (of possibly many) parts of the Earth over which that governemtn claims legal control and jurisdiction. A specialization of both #$MultiIndividualAgent and #$GeographicalThing. Each instance of #$GeographicalAgent is a group of people and/or organizations cohesive enough to be treated as an agent (see the collection #$Agent, of which #$GeographicalAgent is a specialization), and which occupies a particular instance of #$GeographicalRegion. Important specializations of #$GeographicalAgent include #$GeopoliticalEntity, #$University, and #$Neighborhood. Note that instances of #$GeographicalAgent are viewed in two significantly different ways with respect to two different types of geography-related microtheories. In a 'physical' geography microtheory (i.e. #$PhysicalGeographyMt and its submicrotheories), geographical agents are clearly distinguished from the regions they occupy. (#$TerritoryFn GEO-AGENT) is used in these contexts to denote the land mass (an instance of #$GeographicalRegion) occupied by a given geographical agent GEO-AGENT. In a 'dualist' geography microtheory (i.e. #$DualistGeopoliticalMt and its submicrotheories), on the other hand, geographical agents are viewed as being _both_ agents _and_ land masses (instances of #$GeographicalRegion). Thus, there is little need for #$TerritoryFn in the latter sort of context. (Despite their somewhat paradoxical flavor, dualist microtheories arguably allow Cyc to mimic commonsense reasoning about geographical agents and regions more closely than do the stricter physical microtheories.) There are also some 'generic' geography microtheories (e.g. #$WorldGeographyMt and #$UnitedStatesGeographyMt) which are neutral with respect to the physical and dualist views. Also see the shared-note for this constant. c1371c02-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$IntelligentAgent. Each instance of #$SocialBeing is an intelligent agent whose status as an agent is acknowledged within some social system, and who is capable of playing certain social roles within that system. Note that in many (but not all) cases, a #$SocialBeing will have certain rights and responsibilities associated with his/her/its status within the relevant social system. For agents who are granted rights and responsibilities under some legal system, see the specialization #$LegalAgent. Other notable specializations of #$SocialBeing are #$Person and #$Organization. bd58a49e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 wasCreatedBy relates an Artifact (concrete or abstract) to the Agent or Agents who created it. Knowing the identity of one creator (e.g. of an artifact) does not guarantee that one knows the identity of all creators. @ToDo: NOTE: as of v0.52, ArtificialSubstance is included in the domain as a subtype of 'Artifact-generic', but this should be restricted to objects, since it is quantities of ArtificialSubstance that are actually created by agents, not the abstract substance. Change the range to some subtype of 'Artifact-generic'?? NOTE that the range includes an AbstractString, which is semantically nonsense, but is included as a pragmatic tactic to allow subrelations of this relation to be used in mapping database records to their creators. The creators will sometimes be represented in the database only as a string, and in such cases an implementing system, at its option, can avoid creating a new Person object (instead creating an AbstractString object), when the system cannot identify the 'creator' of the record. This tactic may change as the ontology is further developed, and experience with mapping databases increases.. 'Artificial' is an AttributeValue of Objects (including MentalObjects) that are intentionally created by IntentionalAgents (including Animals) for a purpose rather than by the inanimate forces of nature. A 'natural language' is not Artificial, since it is not created intentionally as a whole, but by a gradual process of accumulation of parts during instances of use. Includes sense 1 and 3 of adjective 'artificial' in WordNet: 1. (4) artificial, unreal - (contrived by art rather than nature; 'artificial flowers'; 'artificial flavoring'; 'an artificial diamond'; 'artificial fibers'; 'artificial sweeteners') 3. artificial - (not arising from natural growth or characterized by vital processes) artificial artificial artificial1adj An Artifact-Generic was anything created by an Agent. More useful categories will be the more specific Types. Original COSMO Indented List name: Artifact-Generic_includes_conceptual_works__laws__information_objects_ OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 A collection of things created by #$Agents. These creations may be either tangible (like a hammer, a bowl, or a bridge) or intangible (like a set of laws, a #$KnowledgeBase, or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Thus, the collection of #$Artifact-Generics is partitioned into #$Artifact and #$Artifact-Intangible (q.v.). For substypes labeled 'product' see also 'Product', 'ManufacturedGoods' The term 'creature' (e.g. 'a city is a creture of the state' can also be used for anything created by an intelligent agent; but no such sense is in WordNet. Corresponds approximately to noun 1 of 'artifact' and part of noun sense 2 of 'work'(but only applies to objects, not Actions) in WordNet, being interpreted as both physical and abstract work products: WN 'artifact': 1. (1) artifact, artefact - (a man-made object taken as a whole) WN 'product' 2. (138) product, production - (an artifact that has been created by someone or some process; 'they improve their product every year'; 'they export most of their agricultural production') WN noun 'work': 2. (359) work, piece of work - (a product produced or accomplished through the effort or activity or agency of a person or thing; 'it is not regarded as one of his more memorable works'; 'the symphony was hailed as an ingenious work'; 'he was indebted to the pioneering work of John Dewey'; 'the work of an active imagination'; 'erosion is the work of wind or water over time') product product product2n artifact artifact1n artefact artefact1n work work work2n creature A MentalObject is an Object that does not have mass and was created by an IntelligentAgent (usually a Person.or Organization). This is a very broad and primitive category comprehensible mostly by inspection of a list of subtypes. Since this is not physical, instances of this Type are not observable, but physical representations of instances of this Type (such as a specific copy of 'Gone With the Wind') can be weighed and felt. Abstract texts, musical compositions, propositions, theories, plays, poems, speeches, rights - all are MentalObjects. They will invariably have a physical representation in some PhysicalObject (including brains, light waves and sound waves). But the MentalObject itself has no physical (material) component. This corresponds closely to what in some systems (e.g. the Ontology Works top ontology) is called an 'AbstractArtifact' - something created by a Person that is not a PhysicalObject. We adopt the convention that an individual MentalObject exists only so long as there is some PhysicalObject that represents it. That PhysicalObject could be the brain of a Person, some sound or electromagnetic waves encoding that MentalObject, or some piece of paper with markings on it. When the last physical object representing that MentalObject ceases to exist, that MentalObject also ceases to exist. A new MentalObject indistinguishable from a previously existing one can always be created (even by the original creator), but it would be a different individual with a different identity. NOTE that a MentalObject is a subtype of 'AbstractEntity', but we adopt the convention that it can hava a location in space-time, being the collection of locations where its physical representations are located. Thus a Belief or a Proposition may be located in the brain of one or more IntelligentAgents, or in physical documents describing the belief symbolically. This 'location' differs from the location of any individual physical object, because the location is the collection of all physical objects containing representations of the Mental Object. This notion of 'abstract' is not the same as the traditional 'abstract' which cannot be located in space-time. Other subtypes of 'AbstractEntity' such as MathematicalObjects will be more traditionally abstract in that way. An idiosyncratic 'location' for a MentalObject is the location of a GeopoliticalEntity, which is located in the region controlled by the GeopoliticalEntity. Equivalent to the Cyc #$Artifact-Intangible OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002: A specialization of both #$IntangibleIndividual and #$Artifact-Generic. Each instance of #$Artifact-Intangible is an intangible thing intentionally created by an agent or agents. Important specializations of #$Artifact-Intangible include #$ComputerLanguage, #$ConceptualWork, and #$Agreement. COSMO: A GeopoliticalEntity in COSMO differs from its representation in other ontologies, to stay closer to the linguistic intuitions. Specifically, we say 'government of France', implying that the entity 'France' is not identical to its government. To conform to those intuitions, 'France' and other countries will be GeopoliticalEntities. Therefore a GeopoliticalEntity is something distinct from the organization which forms the government. In COSMO, it is an unusual hybrid, being both a MentalObject and a GenericLocation. Itis neither a PhysicalObject nor an Organization. The Governmen of a GeopoliticalEntity is an Organization. A GeopoliticalEntity in COSMO is a composite Entity which (1) is an agent (2) claims control over some land area of the earth (3) has a government or other ruling organization, which is also an agent (4) is a MentalObject, meaning that it does not have mass and was created by an IntelligentAgent NOTE1: As a GenericLocation, one can say that something isLocatedAt a GeopoliticalEntity even though one means that an object isLocatedAt the region controlled by the GeopoliticalEntity. When an instance of a GeopoliticalEntity is used as an argument that should logically take a region, the implementation should, for consistency, coerce the argument into the corresponding GeopoliticalArea. At present (v0.48) there is no 'disjoint' relation that will cause a logical contradiction, but elaboration of the ontology might cause problems at some point for the use of an Agent as a Location. Alternatives may be worth exploring. NOTE2: if the government performs an action, it is unclear whether it is alway proper to say that a country (or city) performed that action. Therefore the GeopoliticalEntity and its government are treated as distinct agents, though it will probably be true in almost all cases that when one acts, the other can be said to act. NOTE3 that countries have four aspects: (1) the country itself, the GeopoliticalEntity (2) the government of the country (3) the spatial region controlled by the counry (4) the physical objects within the spatial region controlled by the country. (4.1) among the physical objects are those that are part of the land, including the vegetation, and those that are animals or artifactual structures. In normal speech, the distinctions among these are not made because the referents are clear from the context. For this ontology, the distinctions appear necessary. A GeopoliticalEntity usually has an Organization that claims control over the geographical region identified as the area of the GeopoliticalEntity. Usually this will be a government, but occasionally other Organizations such as occupying armies will claim control without claiming to be a formal government. This concept differs from the OpenCyc #$GeopoliticalEntity in that it is strictly an organization, whereas the Cyc concept includes some element of the geographical region itself. The Cyc documentation is reproduced here to clarify the difference: Cyc: A specialization of #$Organization and of #$LegalAgent and of #$GeographicalAgent; instances of this collection control #$GeographicalRegions. Each instance of #$GeopoliticalEntity includes a governing body, but is more than just that governing body. Important subcollections include #$Country, #$IndependentCountry, #$State-Geopolitical, #$City, and #$Province. Instances include #$CityOfTokyoJapan, #$BronxNY-Borough, #$Alaska-State, #$Rwanda, #$Singapore, #$InnerMongolia, #$Somerset-CountyEngland, and #$Taiwan-RepublicOfChina. A central feature of this collection is that geopolitical-entities (indeed, all #$GeographicalAgents) are viewed in two significantly different ways with respect to two different types of geography-related microtheories. In a physical geography microtheory (i.e. #$PhysicalGeographyMt and its submicrotheories), geopolitical-entities are clearly distinguished from the regions they control. (#$TerritoryFn GEO-POL) is used in these contexts to denote the land mass (a #$GeopoliticalRegion) of a given geopolitical-entity GEO-POL. In a dualist geography microtheory (i.e. #$DualistGeopoliticalMt and its submicrotheories), on the other hand, geopolitical-entities are viewed as being _both_ agents _and_ land masses (i.e. #$GeographicalRegions). Thus, there is little need for #$TerritoryFn in the latter sort of context. (Despite their somewhat paradoxical flavor, dualist microtheories arguably allow Cyc to mimic commonsense reasoning about geopolitical entities and regions more closely than do the stricter physicalist microtheories.) There are also some generic geography microtheories (e.g. #$WorldGeographyMt and #$UnitedStatesGeographyMt) which are neutral with respect to the physical and dualist views. Also see the shared-note for this constant. bd58e5da-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 An AbstractObject is an entity which does not exist in space or time. This is more stringent than merely not having mass, the criterion for belonging to 'AbstractEntity'. This category is mostly for mathematical concepts. Under 'AbstractEntity' we also have 'MentalObjects', which do exist in space and time. COSMO Note: the notion of 'Abstract' has historically been somewhat vague. It is often defined by saying that it represents things 'not located in space or time' - but then subclasses are defined which are clearly mental constructs with a defined creation time (e.g. musical compositions) - which means that they must indeed be located in time and space. In this ontology we distinguish generically 'Abstract' things from 'MentalObjects' - the latter are things created by IntelligentAgents (people) that have no mass, and therefore would traditionally be categorized as 'Abstract'. 'AbstractObject' here is used mostly to categorize mathematical things such as numbers, which arguably do not depend on intelligent entities for their existence. But 'AbstractEntities' and 'MentalObjects' are not considered disjoint here, so there is room for people to argue whether mathematical concepts are created or merely discovered by mathematicians - we take no position on that issue. See the note under 'AbstractEntity' to see how 'Abstract' is used in this ontology. The current (20061027) arrangement here is provisional, keeping some of the terminology from Cyc and SUMO for alignment - but it may be changed slightly in the future in a way that will not affect inferencing. Intangible_Cyc__Abstract_SUMO__abstract_object_ISO15926 ISO15926 An Abstract-object is a thing that does not exist in space-time. (COSMO note - this is not the interpretation in COSMO - MentalObjects are abstract, but they do 'exist' in our ordinary space and time.) SUMO: Abstract : Properties or qualities as distinguished from any particular embodiment of the properties/qualities in a physical medium. Instances of Abstract can be said to exist in the same sense as mathematical objects such as sets and relations, but they cannot exist at a particular place and time without some physical encoding or embodiment. #$Intangible: OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 The collection of things that are not physical - are not made of, or encoded in, matter. Every #$Collection is an #$Intangible (even if its instances are tangible), and so are some #$Individuals. Caution: do not confuse 'tangibility' with 'perceivability' - humans can perceive light even though it's intangible--at least in a sense. For more on this issue, see the relevant #$cyclistNotes. A PhysicalObject is an Object that has mass. The mass is relativistic, i.e. the Object does not have to have rest mass; so, a photon and other fundamental particles are 'PhysicalObject's, just as are the ordinary objects like rocks, baseballs, and automobiles. In COSMO some *quantity* of substance (e.g. the water in a glass of water) is also a PhysicalObject (more specifically, an instance of the subtype 'LiquidObject'). Quantities of gas are also PhysicalObjects (more specifically, 'GaseousObject's such as the 'EarthsAtmosphere'). NOTE that a PhysicalSubstance such as Air or Water is not a PhysicalObject, but is the material of which PhysicalObjects consist. See 'PhysicalSubstance' for more detail on the relation of substances and objects in COSMO. Because the determining characteristic of a PhysicalObject is that it has some mass, COSMO has a restriction that all instances of PhysicalObject must specify the mass, using the relation 'hasMassInGrams'. This can be a nuisance when the mass is unknown, and the convention is adopted that a mass of '-1' will be interpreted as an unknown mass. The mass figures can be very approximate - at the OWL phase, the value of the relation 'hasMassInGrams' should be interpreted as only an approximation within an order of magnitude. When more precise mass figures are needed, the relation 'hasMass' can be used (with an instance of MassMeasure as the value), and this relation allows specifying a range of values, or a statistical variance for the numberical portion of the mass value. Using 'hasMass' does not (in the OWL version) eliminate the need to specify some mass by the 'hasMassInGrams' relation, but it soed allow the specification of units of measure other than grams and number ranges for the quantifier. NOTE on '3D' vs '4D' objects: Some ontologists prefer to represent PhysicalObjects as extended in time, thereby forming a '4-dimensional' object ('perdurantism'). Others prefer only 3D objects ('endurantism'), with the time explicitly specified when relations hold on an object. In COSMO this category of 'PhysicalObject' is indeterminate as between a Perdurant and an Endurant - that is, the instances are not necessarily zero-duration time slices, nor are they necessarily time slices of finite duration. An instance of 'PhysicalObject' can be used in relations where the valid time interval for the relation is explicit, in which case it behaves syntactically like a 3D object; or an instance can also be specified to be an instance of 'TimeSlice', in which case that instance is a 4-dimensional TimeSlice of a PhysicalObject, and any relations defined on that 4D instance hold only during the TimeInterval of the TimeSlice. See 'TimeSlice' for more detail on that type and its use. As a result, Roles such as 'Student', which are TemporalThings with a beginning and end time, can be classified as subtypes of this category. Corresponds to a supertype of noun sense 1 of 'object' in WordNet; this COSMO type includes Objects that are not visible, as long at they have mass: 1. (64) object, physical object - (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow; "it was full of rackets, balls and other objects") object object object1n 'isaFictionalPortrayalOf' relates an entity in a work of fiction to some entity in our real world which served (more or less closely) as the model that the 'FictionalThing' is intended to represent . The entity portrayed by the FictionalThing may be a real-world PhysicalObject or Event. Other than 'FictionalPerson', there are few specific subtypes of 'FictionalThing', so this relation may be used to relate things in fiction to the types of things (events, objects) that they portray, even if there is not specific instance of those things that can be specified as a real-world referent. hasMassInGrams relates an Object to its mass measured in grams. This is a shortcut to using more general functional mass measures, and is used here only for illustration, to permit some specifics in instances. The values given should be taken as crude estimates (order of magnitude estimates, possible error over 100%), particularly since no time interval is given by this relation. Relations expressing more exact values of mass have not yet (v0.45) been written in COSMO. This is mostly a placeholder for more meaningful relations. NOTE that for convenience we allow FictionalThings to have a mass, though they are not PhysicalObjects. NOTE: for objects whose mass is unknown, a value of '-1' will serve as the code for 'unknown mass'. Since, as of v0.49, a mass value is required in COSMO for PhysicalObjects (mass is the characteristic property of PhysicalObjects), an explicit value must be provided even if it is unknown. If an approximate value can be guessed within +- 100% (as with human weights),a value should be entered so that the reasoner will have some information with which to make inferences. For example, a car mass of 1,000,000 grams (one ton) will allow the reasoner to infer 'too heavy for a person to lift'. Corresponds to verb sense 1 of 'weigh' in WordNet: 1. (19) weigh - (have a certain weight) weigh weigh weigh1v COSMO note: COSMO treats FictionalThings differently from CYC. In COSMO, a FictionalThing is a MentalObject, and cannot be a PhysicalObject or Event. The problem anticipated is that the properties of FictionalThings in the Fictional context can be quite different from the properties in the real world; to avoid logical inconsistencies the relation between fictional things and the types of things they are supposed to represent is specified by using the relation 'isaFictionalPortrayalOf', which can point to a type of Object or Event, or to an individual Object or Event. The fact that the truth of assertions is usually only evaluated in a specific context also provides a barrier to logical inconsistency even if the properties of the fictional things are nonstandard, but making assertions in Fiction different in kind from those about real-world things should make the task of avoiding contradiction easier. Cyc: The collection of all objects that are #$TemporalThings (beings, magical artifacts, spells, etc.) in fictional works but not extant in the world modeled by the KB in which something is asserted to be an instance of this. This collection should have no instances in #$BaseKB or other general microtheories, but be restricted to microtheories dealing with the real world or some fictional world. Note that instances of #$FictionalContext or stories about #$FictionalThings are not themselves #$FictionalThings, unless they are only defined as existing in some #$FictionalContext. COSMO note: In Cyc FictionalThing is a subtype of TemporalThing, but in COSMO TemporalThings is redefined not to include objects, so this category has been reassigned as a subtype of 'MentalObject' and the more general category 'Individual'. c10c3005-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 This is the most general Type in which to collect patterns of different kinds - visual, sound patterns, numerical patterns, behavioral patterns, etc. In COSMO, a Pattern is a Specification, which means that it is a kind of MentalObject. That means that Patterns do not have existence unless created by IntelligentAgents. This will probably seem odd to some people, who would prefer to think that patterns have an independent existence - especially when geometric figures are subtypes of 'Pattern'. At this point, there is no reason to classify Patterns in any way other than as specifications that people create to classify some types of relations that obejcts within groups of things may have to each other. If some reason is presented to consider patterns as independent of the way people use them, that may be a different concept, or may warrant reclassification. This is the most general Type in which to collect visual patterns - geometric designs, fingerprint patterns, artifact structural patterns, appearances, shapes, outlines, etc.. NOTE that an abstract image itself (e.g. an image of a fingerprint) can be a pattern. A subcollection of #$SpatialThing. Each instance of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing is a spatially-connected spatial thing (of 0, 1, 2, or 3 dimensions) that either (i) has or approximates a simple geometric shape (e.g. it is a #$Line or a #$Hemisphere) or (ii) consists of a number of (connected) parts in a relatively stable geometric configuration, where each such part has or approximates a simple geometric shape (e.g. a table consisting of a 3-D-disc-shaped top and four cylindrical legs). A #$GeometricallyDescribableThing might be tangible (see #$PhysicalObject) or intangible (see #$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible). Note that what counts as approximating a given simple geometric shape -- and thus what spatial things count as #$GeometricallyDescribableThings - varies with context. In a context that was so fine-grained shape-wise that even the shapes of the individual molecules on the surface of an object were considered relevant to the object's shape, perhaps nearly every (connected, solid) tangible object would be geometrically-describable. In more everyday contexts, on the other hand, an unopened can of soup would be geometrically-describable (as a cylinder), while a telephone or an animal's body would probably not. bd58c42e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of both #$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$IntangibleIndividual (qq.v.). This is the collection of all intangible, geometrically-describable things, whether spatially localized or not. #$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible is the intersection (see #$collectionIntersection) of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$Intangible. Examples include any spatially-connected, intangible thing that has or approximates (or which consists entirely of parts that all have or approximate) a simple geometric shape, such as the intangible space determined by a particular Egyptian pyramid, an abstract Platonic sphere, or the center of mass of the solar system (a point) at the first instant of the Twentieth Century in Greenwich, England. Important specializations of this collection are #$GeometricThing-Localized (which includes all spatially localized instances) and #$GeometricThing-Abstract (which includes all instances not spatially located in the empirically-observable universe). c12c73ef-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 The collection of #$Intangible things that are intrinsically mathematical (see #$MathematicalThing) or computational (see #$ComputationalObject). Instances of #$MathematicalOrComputationalThing are abstract in the very strong sense of being nonspatial, atemporal, and massless. Examples include numbers, sets, collections, relations, algorithms, and abstract character strings. bd58e31f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of #$MathematicalOrComputationalThing. Each instance of #$MathematicalThing is an atemporal, nonspatial, purely mathematical thing. #$MathematicalThing is partitioned into two main specializations, #$MathematicalObject and #$SetOrCollection (qq.v). bd58e5b6-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 A specialization of both #$MathematicalThing and #$IntangibleIndividual. Each instance of #$MathematicalObject is a purely abstract mathematical thing which is also an individual (see #$Individual). Specializations of #$MathematicalObject include #$Quantifier, #$RealNumber, #$Triangle, and #$TruthValue. Note that instances of #$SetOrCollection are not instances of #$MathematicalObject, since they are not instances of #$Individual. bf461f37-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 An instance of #$GeometricShapeType and a specialization of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible and #$HomogeneousExtendedSpaceRegion (qq.v.). This is the collection of geometrical figures, conceived of as bounded (one- or higher-dimensional) regions of space. Neither a single point (see #$GeometricalPoint), nor a sum of scattered points, is an instance of #$Figure-Geometrical. Note that this collection includes line segments, but not unbounded lines. An important specialization of this collection is #$PlaneFigure-Geometrical. The class of all geometric figures, i.e. the class of all abstract, spatial representations. Instance of GeometricFigure are abstract mathematical objects which can be considered as independent of anything in our material universe. They are therefore not MentalObjects, which must be created by people. The instances of this class are GeometricPoints, TwoDimensionalFigures or ThreeDimensionalFigures or any other Object that can be represented as being a distribution of points, lines, planes, volumes, or hypervolumes in some abstract space. be91f0ad-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002 This collection may be thought of as consisting of all the entities which are localizable within the context of a geography, in the sense that they might plausibly be represented on a map. This includes both #$PartiallyTangible entities like #$GeographicalRegions, and also entities that may be wholly #$Intangible, like territorial borders and boundaries, #$LatitudeLines and #$LongitudeLines, trajectories of missiles and courses of ships, and the #$Equator. 'wasTheLocationOf is the inverse of 'occurredAt', and relates a GenericLocation to some Event that occurred at that location. A 'location' relation for Events. For object or region locations, see 'isLocatedAt'. The location is a GenericLocation: region of space (connected or disconnected) or an object (physical or abstract) . The value of this relation answers the question 'where did it happen?'. NOTE that the use of the past tense in this relation does not necessarily mean that the Event argument occurred in the past before the assertion time; if the relation relates a possible future Event, this relation can also be used. The past tense merely emphasizes that we are discussing Events that, in the given context, are viewed as completed and not ongoing. This can also be used for types of Events, to specify a particular location where they always occur. But to specify types of locations where types of Events usually occur, use 'typicallyOccursAt'. This is one relation expressing the notion of 'happen' that is sense 1 of verb 'happen' in WordNet: 1. (150) happen, hap, go on, pass off, occur, pass, fall out, come about, take place - (come to pass; 'What is happening?'; 'The meeting took place off without an incidence'; 'Nothing occurred that seemed important') happen happen happen1v A specialization of #$Situation. Each instance of #$Situation-Localized is a situation whose temporal extent occurs at a specific location in space. Notable specializations of #$Situation-Localized include #$PhysiologicalCondition and #$Event-Localized. NOTE: in COSMO the 'location' relations differ for objects or regions (see 'isLocatedAtOrOn') and for Events ('occurredAt'). To specify the location of an individual Event, use 'occurredAt'. For EventTypes, use 'typically OccursAt' or 'occursAt'. Although every 'Situation-Localized' the restriction attached to this type does not require specifying location, since it is often desirable to talk about Events without specifying where they occurred. 71236476-8636-41d7-88b4-b7549eb3213c A FunctionalProcess corresponds to the linguistic intuition of something happening at some point in time, rather than something that has happened in some interval of time, which is an Event. Intuitively, it may be considered as the time derivative of an Event: a Process occurring over some interval of time gives rise to an Event, which is a change (or series of changes) in the properties of some Objects during some interval of Time. Every FunctionalProcess is intimately associated with some Event as one of the components of that Event (see 'Event'). NOTE that this differs from the notion of 'process' used in Cyc, where a Process is a kind of Event that can be subdivided and still result in an Event of the same kind. In COSMO taking some temporal part of a FunctionalProcess does not necessarily result in a FunctionalProcess of the same kind. **NOTE** A FunctionalProcess may also be defined, not by specifying the individual values of the fluents at points in time, but by specifying the manner in which a fluent can change over time. One specific example of this is a **differential equation** which can be used to take the value of a fluent at some starting point in time, and calculate the values at subsequent points in time. Thus a FunctionalProcess can have, as its TimeIndexedAssertion, a differential equation. This is an important difference between Event and FunctionalProcess. @ToDo: the specifics of how a differential equation are to be represented have not been elaborated as of v0.50. Formally, a FunctionalProcess is a Group consisting of one or more TimeIndexedAssertions, where each TimeIndexedAssertion is an InstantaneousState or PersistentState. Each State contains a Group of assertions specifying the values of the fluents that hold at that TimePoint; if only one Object is a participant in the FunctionalProcess, thre may be only one TimeIndexedAssertion in each State. A TimeIndexedAssertion can be a differential equation relating a fluent to time. Thus if, at some point in time, someone is Running, one can say that a Running process exists at that point, and that person is a participant in the process. The 'existence' of an instance of Process at some time point implies that some Event has taken place (or is taking place) in the time interval including that time point, and vice-versa, each Event implies existence of some corresponding FunctionalProcess at every time point during the interval between the beginning and end of the Event (**but see next paragraph**). But for linguistic purposes, it may be more convenient to represent just the Event or just the FunctionalProcess, and not explicitly represent the corresponding entity, which is nevertheless implied. The list of States over time has some similarity to a ValueTimeEntry, though the former relates the state assertions themselves, rather than the values. **It is possible for a FunctionalProcess to be discontinuous, such as an 'eating' process during which one is not actually ingesting anything - perhaps reading a paper in the intervals between taking bites of a meal; or a 'going to school' process during which one sleeps, watches television, etc., other than actually being in the school or studying. One may formally say that the process continues int the intervals when the relevant fluents are not changing, but that the intervals between actual progression of the process each consists of a null process (PersistentState) which is part of the whole process, and give rise to null events which are parts of the whole event.** The term 'process' has been often used to refer to Procedures, (see 'Procedure') which are specifications for some sequence of actions that accomplish a goal. That is a distinct, though somewhat related concept. In some ontologies, (such as Cyc) a 'process' is a type of Event which has some uniform character throughout the Event. Because of the variant usage, the bare term 'process' is not used in this ontology to avoid confusion. Thus this base Type is called 'FunctionalProcess' to specifically refer to its similarity to a mathematical function. It resembles a mathematical function in certain respects: a FunctionalProcess can be said to describe the state of some system as a function of time. Like a function, a FunctionalProcess can have properties, and one important property will be the Rate at which the represented change is occurring. A characteristic of a FunctionalProcess is one can specify a Rate at some time point, or an average rate in some time interval. There is no corresponding Rate that can be specified for an Event, even though the two concepts are otherwise very similar. Most ontologies deal with Events, and ignore Processes of this type. For representing certain linguistic phrases, however, this type is better suited than the Event type. Most FunctionalProcesses are not represented explicitly in COSMO at version 0.3, but when needed may be generated by a function (not yet defined) that takes an Event and returns the Process that is operating to generate that Event. One issue not yet dealt with in COSMO v0.3 is whether a function that can generate a Process from the corresponding Event can handle Events whose definition specifies more than one Fluent as changing during the Event. In such cases, to have a clear relation, the multiple fluents must be ordered similarly in the representation of the Event and its corresponding FunctionalProcess. Each 'IntensiveAttributeValue' is an AttributeValue that may be qualitative or quantitative, and expresses an intensity of some AttributeType. This is very general. Certain IntensiveAttributeValues may take both verbal intensive values (high'. 'medium', 'low'. and numerical values 'the drug is only 25% effective at preventing cancer'. 'Ordered' is an AttributeValue of Groups that have some kind of ordering. More specific orderings will be subtypes of this AttributeValue, such as 'LinearlyOrdered' 'Ordered' is an AttributeValue of Groups that have some kind of ordering. More specific orderings will be subtypes of this Attributealue, such as 'LinearlyOrdered' An OrderedGroup is a Group that has some ordering relation between component elements. It usually has more than one component element, but to allow generalization of certain concepts such as an ActionSeries, an OrderedGroup is allowed to have as few as one component element. The ordering may be of any kind: a simple linear order, or a complex multi-dimensional pattern. The most common kind of OrderedGroup is one that is linearly ordered, and each such Group is an instance of the subtype 'LinearlyOrderedGroup'. An OrderedGroup may be physical, whereas a List is an AbstractInformationStore. Therefore not all OrderedGroups are Lists. One may define an OrderedGroup that is a List, if one is careful that the OrderedGroup is also an AbstractInformationStore. Corresponds to noun sense 2 of 'arrangement' in WordNet: 2. (4) arrangement - (an orderly grouping (of things or persons) considered as a unit; the result of arranging; "a flower arrangement") arrangement arrangement2n A 'LinearlyOrderedGroup' is a Group that has a linear ordering, which is a mapping from the natural numbers to elements of the Group. It will usually have more than one element, but may have only one. The ordering can be the result of a random process, ther may not be any principle that dictates how the elements are ordered. For a 'LinearlyOrderedGroup' in which the order is dictated by some principle, use 'Series'. Corresponds most closely to noun sense 1 of 'ordering' in WordNet, assuming that the WordNe synse refers to a linera ordering (as dintinguished from the more gneral ordering of the WordNet hypernym 'Arrangement': 1. (4) ordering, order, ordination - (logical or comprehensible arrangement of separate elements; "we shall consider these questions in the inverse order of their presentation") ordering ordering1n A List is a 'LinearlyOrderedGroup' that is a MentalObject, i.e. an Object without mass created by an IntelligentAgent, with the distinctive character that it is a linearly ordered arrangement of AbstractSymbolicObjects. A List may be empty, and has its own properties in addition to the properties of the constituent elements, therefore it is not a Group. Note that AbstractStrings are subtype of List. A List is ordered, and it can have the same entity in different positions in the llist. It is not a type of Set. A List, as in OWL lists, has a 'first' and 'rest' component. The 'rest' can be another list, or null. Therefore a list may have one element (or none) Cyc comment: A specialization of #$Tuple. Each instance of #$List is a finite sequence of things with a first and last member-position, with each member-position other than the last having a successor member-position. As with tuples generally, lists allow for repetition of their members, so that the same item can appear at multiple member-positions in the same list. A list can be represented formally as a function from a finite index set of counting numbers, beginning with one, into the domain of all #$Things (but note that #$Lists are _not_ explicitly represented as functions in the Cyc ontology). Unlike an instance of #$Series (q.v.), a list is purely abstract (i.e. both aspatial and atemporal), and the only implied relation between an item and its successor in a list is the successor relation of the list itself. Technically, #$List is more specific than #$Tuple only in that the index set (see #$tupleIndexSet) for a given list must be the counting numbers in their usual order (or some initial segment thereof), whereas the index set for a tuple, generally speaking, might be any set whatsoever. the inverse of 'isaPartOf', a very general relation applicable to spatial regions, events, or objects in some space. Non-standard usage: 'PhysicalSubstance' is added, though there are no instances in COSMO. This is a device to allow inheritable use of relations on substances. Needs to be carefully translated into FOL hasComponentElement relates a Group to the individual elements of which the group consists. Any entity can be aggregated with another entity to form a conceptual Group; there are no restrictions on the type of entity that can be an element of a Group. NOTE: this 'element' is not the chemical 'element'! See also the specializations of this relation, for OrderedGroups, indicating the location in the OrderedGroup of a particular element. See 'hasFirstElement' and 'hasSecondElement'. THe WordNet sense closest is verb sense 1 of 'contain' and part of 'consist' sense 4: WN 'contain: 1. (119) incorporate, contain, comprise - (include or contain; have as a component; 'A totally new idea is comprised in this paper'; 'The record contains many old songs from the 1930's') 4. consist, comprise - (be composed of; 'The land he conquered comprised several provinces'; 'What does this dish consist of?') consist consist consist4v contain contain contain1v isaComponentElementOf relates some entity to a Group of which it is a member. It is the inverse of 'hasComponentElement'. Since Groups are not defined arbitrarily, and seldom defined automatically, this relation will typically be used only when it makes sense to do so. For example, one may define a Group of 'attendees' of some particular meeting. Then to say that a Person is a member of that Group would allow inference that that Person was in a particular place at a particular time.. hasTopic relates a Document, Text, or InformationTransferEvent to one or more topics discussed in the Message. This is a specialization of 'mentionsTopic', and the Topics related by this relation would be expected to be more in focus than the Topics related by the 'mentionsTopic' relation. There may be more than one topic, but there should be at least one. Peripheral or insignificant topics are less likely to be mentioned using this relation than when using the 'mentionsTopic' relation. The more specific domain here is 'Message' but the range - the topic - could be of any type at all. NOTE that any of the arguments of a RelationInstance (subject, value, other arguments) is a topic of that Assertion. Linguistically, this relation can be phrased as (Doc is about Topic). Corresponds approximately to verb sense 1 of 'deal' and sense 5 of 'cover' and sense 4 of 'treat' in WordNet (deal with): 1. (34) cover, treat, handle, plow, deal, address - (deal with verbally or in some form of artistic expression; "This book deals with incest"; "The course covered all of Western Civilization"; "The new book treats the history of China") deal deal deal1v cover cover cover5v treat treat4v 'hasReturnValue' points to the last argument in the argument list - in RDF, it is the object; when a relation is a simple function, this argument will be the return value of the function. For example, in the relation instance: (hasColor Car23 RedColor) . . . the entity 'RedColor' is the value of the RelationInstance. Simple Functions are functional relations that are functional in the last argument; a Function is a special kind of relation that can be used to create a 'function term' - a term that is in the form of a RelationInstance. Thus we may have a function called 'TheMotherOf' and it could be used to create a term of the form: (TheMotherOf PrinceWilliam). That term could be used to represent the person who is the mother of PrinceWilliam. Formally, in the version of COSMO that will be in a CL-compliant form, such functions are relations that have one more argument (i.e. the value) than appears in the funciton term. In the above case, the value of the term could be specified by an assertion in the form: (TheMotherOf PrinceWilliam PrincessDiana). If the formalism permits, the same meaning could be asserted by an assertion of the form: (equals (TheMotherOf PrinceWilliam) PrincessDiana). The two would be equivalent. The ability to properly interpret functions will depend on the CL implementation. hasSubject points to the subject of a RelationInstance, the first argument in RDF or a CL-compliant format. hasSubject points to the relation (in OWL, the Property) which relates the arguments; of a RelationInstance. In the special form of a RelationInstance, the 'topic' specified in the relation 'hasTopic' will be any of the arguments, including the subject, of a RelationInstance (but not the relation name). Therefore this relation is a subproperty of 'hasTopic'. Each instance of RelationInstance is an Assertion structured as an ordered n-tuple, (an instance of List) representing one instance of a relation among two or more entities. Certain concepts in COSMO are represented as subtypes of 'RelationInstance', such as Obligation and Debt. This type is used to reify relations so that they can be discussed as an object. Each RelationInstance must have at least two arguments (role fillers). The number of arguments can be specified by the 'hasCardinalityNumber' relation, which would point to an integer which is one greater than the arity of the relation; the cardinality specifies the total number of elements in the list, which includes the relation itself. The roles (arguments) in each RelationInstance are specified by relations on each instance: 'hasRelation' points to the relation (in OWL, the Property) which relates the arguments; 'hasSubject' points to the subject as it would appear in an RDF triple; 'hasReturnValue' points to the last argument in the argument list - in an RDF triple, it is identical to the object; when a relation is a simple function, this argument will be the return value of the function. 'hasSecondArgument' points to the second argument of a relation with arity three or higher, but never to the value; 'hasThirdArgument' points to the third argument of a relation with arity four or higher, and never to the value; etc.; The ordering of the component elements (relation and arguments) in a RelationInstance does not have to be fixed, but if it does not use the format of having the relation name first and value last, it should have a mapping to that ordering (a procedure that converts one to the other) so that the relations ('hasRelation','hasReturnValue' 'hasSubject', etc.) specifying the components of the RelationInstance will have the same meaning regardless of the ordering. For example, a RelationInstance using the SKIF format will have the relation name first: (hasBirthMother PrinceWilliam PrincessDiana) This can be rendered in ESKIF with the order of the first two elements reversed: {PrinceWilliam hasBirthMother PrincessDiana} The meaning is the same in both cases, and the relations on 'RelationInstance' will return exactly the same elements in both cases. This corresponds to sense 1 of 'relation' in WordNet: 1. (27) relation - (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two entities or parts together) relation relation relation1n Each instance of TimeIndexedAssertion is a RelationInstance which includes, explicitly or implicitly, some RelationInstance that specifies the time (time point or time interval) at which that RelationInstance holds. The time can be included explicitly when multiple-arity relations are used: {Jack was Running from DTEG20080530.1210 to DTEG20080530.1225} Alternatively, one if the elements (such as the subject) could be specified as a TimeSlice, and the time interval for the TimeSlice would be interpreted as applying to the entire TimeIndexedAssertion: {JackFrom20080530.1210to20080530.1225 was Running} . . . where 'JackFrom20080530.1210to20080530.1225' is a TimeSlice of Jack (see 'TimeSlice'). That format can be used in OWL where only binary relations are allowed, to specify the state of an object in particular time intervals; {JackFrom20080530.1225to20080530.1300 hasAttributeValue Exhausted} AttributeValues can also be represented as TimeSlices, and used in a TimeIndexedAssertion to index the value of the whole Assertion. NOTE that a differential equation that includes a derivative with respect to time is also an instance of TimeIndexedAssertion. Specifically, each instance of DifferentialTimeEquation will be an instance of TimeIndexedAssertion. An Event in COSMO can be represented as a Group of component subevents, or as a Group of TimeIndexed Assertions, each of which specifies some property of one or more compnents of the system, in some time interval. The grounding of the meaning of an Event rests on the specification of the properties and relations ('fluents') of the Objects participating in the Event at times during the course of the Event; this is accomplished by specifying a Group of 'TimeIndexedAssertion's, which in aggregate represent the changes to the fluents of one or more objects over some interval of time, and containing the component elements: (1) InstantaneousState at the starting time (2) InstantaneousState at the Ending time (3) The FunctionalProcess that describes the intermediate states between the starting and ending times. Events that are represented as a Group of subevents do not need to specify the FunctionalProcess, but should specify the starting and ending InstantaneousStates. **Informally**, a state,process, or event in COSMO is interpreted as the set of *values* of some 'fluents' (attributes or relations that may change over time), but the actual *formal* representation is a Group in which the group elements are the *TimeIndexedAssertions* specifying the values of the fluents pertaining to some Group of Objects, at some TimePoint or TimerInterval. he differences between State, Process,and Event are: State: The Group of Assertions that hold at one time point (InstantaneousState), or persist without change of value over some contiguous interval of time (PersistentState). No value can change within a State. NOTE that one can represent the state of an individual relation or attribute for some Object, without specifying how other attributes may or may not change. Therfore one can, for example, represent a Feeling as a PersistentState that continues without change in value over some interval of time, while other attributes or relations on the same Person change dramatically. Each attribute of each Object represented in a State can be represented as a State separately from the states of other Objects. FunctionalProcess: The full set of LinguisticAssertions specifying the values of fluents at each time point or smaller TimeInterval within a TimeInterval in which the Process is defined. The set of LinguisticAssertions relate times to values,and in that respect is analogous to a mathematical function. In analogy to a mathematical function, one can derive a 'rate' for a Process (in cases where the values are quantified) by taking the ratio of (difference in value) to (difference in time) for any TimeInterval in which a change of value is specified. This rate may change from time to time during a FunctionalProcess. **NOTE** A FunctionalProcess may also be defined, not by specifying the individual values of the fluents at points in time, but by specifying the manner in which a fluent can change over time. One specific example of this is a **differential equation** which can be used to take the value of a fluent at some starting point in time, and calculate the values at subsequent points in time. Thus a FunctionalProcess can have, as its TimeIndexedAssertion, a differential equation. @ToDo: the specifics of how a differential equation are to be represented have not been elaborated as of rev837. **Linguistically** an Event may be labeled by a verb or a noun. The arguments to an event (e.g. the participants) may be implied by use of some linguistic terms (e.g. 'skating' implies the use of skates as a tool). Any given event type may subsume many subtypes, each being an Event with some different type of participant. Whether or not to represent such subtypes explicitly will depend in part on whether the participants are mentioned explicitly in a linguistic text, or whether there are linguistic terms that implicitly assume a certain type of participant. As of rev835, there is no systematic criterion for deciding whether to explicitly represent events with a certain type of participant as subtypes of the more general type, other than whether there are English words that imply a certain type of participant without that participant being mentioned explicitly in text (e.g. 'Baking' is a subtype of 'HeatingProcess', using an Oven as an instrument). Event: focuses on the values of the fluents at the beginning and ending of some TimeInterval, but also includes the FunctionalProcess that specifies the fluent values at times between the beginning and ending. Since the focus of an Event is on the change from one time point to the next, one cannot specify a 'rate' in the same sense as for a FunctionalProcess, where the rate may change many times during the FunctionalProcess. For an Event, one can derive a single 'rate' value that specifies the overall ratio of change of fluent value to time, between the beginning and ending points, and for any instance of Event, only one such 'rate' can be defined. Although logically included in each Event are the starting and ending times, (see relations hasStartingTimePoint and hasEndingTimePoint), these may not be known, and creating an instance of Event does not require specifying those times if not known. NOTE that the FunctionalProcess which is a component of the Event *contains* all of the elements contained in the Event, in that it contains itself, and also contains the states at the beginning and end. While *containing* all of those elements, however, it is nevertheless a distinctly different concept, since the 'Event' specifically selects out of the FunctionalProcess the beginning and ending states as characteristic of the Event. The Event is not a FunctionalProcess, but *contains* a FunctionalProcess as a component element. A FunctionalProcess can be derived from an Event, and an Event can be derived from a FunctionalProcess that is defined over some interval of time. A 'FunctionalProcess' that has only one time point in it also represents a special kind of Event, the limiting case of an InstantaneousState. NOTE also that an instance of FunctionalProcess that is defined by a mathematical function relating properties to time must have associated with it some time interval during which it is asserted to be valid, in order to be an instance. NOTE also that this representation of Event does not resemble a perdurantist 'history' which focuses on some region of space-time. Regions of space-time are represented as 'SpatiotemporalRegion' in COSMO, but the only spatial regions of relevance to an Event are those that can be derived from the locations of the Objects that participate in an Event. The significant conceptual components of an Event are the properties ('fluents') of the Objects that participate in the Event, and insofar as the locations of the Objects may be, but are not necessarily, represented in the Event, those locations may be significant, but except in Events solely depicting motion, the locations are incidental rather than central to the changes represented by the Event. Each Event represents one or more changes that occur to the attributes or relations ('fluents') of one or more objects during some defined interval of time (or for abstract Events, within some interval on the dimension of causality); the net changes are represented by the state at the beginning of the event and the state at the end of the Event. In the physical world, real Events typically have multiple intermediate stages, and nothing occurs instantaneously, but some non-physical Events such as a change of title for a Person may occur at a precise moment by prior arrangement. The representation of intermediate stages of an Event can be explicit, with the included events related to the whole event by the 'hasSubEvent' relation or 'hasTemporalPart' relation. The first can be more specific about one of serveral fluents that vary during an event. The temporal part relation between Events must relate a subevent that includes alll of the fluents represented in the whole Event. Each Event includes implicitly a Process that specifies the course of each fluent between the start and end times. At this point (v0.39) there is no explicit representation of the included Process, but each FunctionalProcess will, if represented explicitly, have an associate time granularity indicating the minimal intervals over which the change in the fluents are represented. The size of the granularity intervals during which FunctionalProcess states are represented will depends on the discretion of the ontologist for the purposes of the representation. COSMO note: note that in some ontologies (and situation logics) , 'Event' is used to refer to a change in state that is considered instantaneous. In COSMO, such an 'Event' is a subtype of the more general event, which is a change in state that occurs over some interval of time (which, for instantaneous changes would be a zero-length time interval). NOTE also that for some Events, such as cyclic Events, merely representing the starting and ending states - which may be identical - loses the whole meaning of the Event; so intermediate states must also be represented in some manner to provide meaning to the Event. Called: Event(Cyc); Process(SUMO); event(DOLCE); Processual(SPAN-BFO) ************ NOTE on BFO 'Process' ****************************** COSMO: BFO the Type most closely representing COSMO 'Event' is 'Process', so that BFO type is made synonymous with ''Event'. BFO makes teh distinction between 'Fiat' events (FiatProcessPart = parts of events) and complete events. This Type represents the complete Event with well-defined beginnings and ends. The FiatProcessPart event is included for compatibility, though not yet used. BFO ('Process') Definition: A processual entity that is a maximally connected spatio-temporal whole and has bona fide beginnings and endings corresponding to real discontinuities. BFO Examples: the life of an organism, the process of sleeping, the process of cell-division ************ NOTE on BFO 'Process' ****************************** Cyc comment: An important specialization of #$Situation and thus also of #$IntangibleIndividual and #$TemporallyExistingThing (qq.v). Each instance of #$Event is a dynamic situation in which the state of the world changes; each instance is something one would say happens . Events are intangible because they are changes per se, not tangible objects that effect and undergo changes. Notable specializations of #$Event include #$Event-Localized, #$PhysicalEvent, #$Action, and #$GeneralizedTransfer. #$Events should not be confused with #$TimeIntervals (q.v.). The temporal bounds of events are delineated by time intervals, but in contrast to many events time intervals have no spatial location or extent. COSMO note: 'Event' was merged with Cyc 'PhysicalEvent' and Cyc 'Event-Localized' The Cyc 'StrictlyMentalEvent' is classified as a PhysicalEvent in COSMO. Cyc: (PhysicalEvent') A specialization of #$Event-Localized. Each instance of #$PhysicalEvent is a spatially localized event involving one or more physical objects or stuffs. #$PhysicalEvents typically involve interaction among #$PartiallyTangibles. But note that a physical event might consist in the creation, destruction, movement, or a change in some physical feature of a single salient physical object. (See #$PhysicalCreationEvent, #$PhysicalDestructionEvent, #$MovementEvent, and #$IntrinsicStateChangeEvent.) For a contrasting (though not necessarily disjoint) collection, see #$StrictlyMentalEvent. For events that have both physical and mental components, see the collection #$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvent. Cyc ('Event-Localized'): A specialization of #$Event. #$Event-Localized is the collection of all events that occur at a specific location in space. Notable specializations of #$Event-Localized include #$PhysicalEvent and #$AnimalActivity. bd58800d-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 Each PhysicalSubstance is an abstraction representing the properties of aggregates composed of multiple small objects of a common type; the notion of a PhysicalSubstance includes any of the common 'substances' we encounter every day: water, air, sugar, salt, coffee (ground or as a drink), beer, meat, steel, plastic, etc., as well as less common substanes such as ion plasma and groups of elementary particles. Every PhysicalSubstance has some basic unit which is the smallest object that can be considered as composed of that substance. For chemical elements the basic unit is an atom; for chemical compounds, the molecule; for sand, one grain of sand, etc. For PhysicalSubstances that are composed of mixtures (e.g. concrete), the formal notion of a 'grain' is used, the 'grain' being the size of the smallest object composed of a substance, that can be subdivided so that the pieces are still objects composed of the same substance. The 'grain' will in general be eight times the size of the 'unit' (allowing division in any of three planes) , but for mixtures the 'unit' may be difficult to identify, and the 'grain' will be the only object identifed as characterizing the PhysicalSubstance. For mixtures, the size of the grain will depend on the sizes and proportions of the constituent objects. Thus in concrete, the grain will have to be at least several times as large as the largest pebble of gravel used in the mixture. Some quantity of a PhysicalSubstance will comprise a HomogeneousObject; in Cyc substances are represented as objects, comparable in meaning to 'HomogeneousObject' in COSMO. The commonly understood properties of substances such as water are characteristic only of aggregates of the basic units (atoms, molecules, grains). To approximate the commonly measured properties (boiling point, melting point, density, etc.) the number of basic units may need to be fairly large; this will also vary with the substance. As of v0.52 this issue is not addressed. This concept must not be construed as a physical object made of some substance (which is the way substances are represented in Cyc - see CycNote below).. PhysicalObjects which are relatively homogeneous (the atmosphere, the ocean) can be construed as consisting of one or more PhysicalSubstances, but they are not substances per se, but specific quantities of a substance, which is one way to view a PhysicalObject. For generality in COSMO, a 'PhysicalSubstance' is the material of which anything with mass is composed, including quantities of subatomic particles that are contained in a certain region of space (such as a plasma in a Tokomak, or a group of electrons in a particle accelerator). However, the term is usually applied only to 'ordinary matter' (solid, liquid, gas); in those cases the unit is an atom or molecule, and the 'grain size' of any PhysicalSubstance that is 'ordinary matter' must contain at least 8 atoms or 8 molecules (so that it can be divided in two in any axis and still have multiple units in the resulting parts). IMPORTANT NOTE: PhysicalSubstances are categorized by the main consitutent. Therefore 'SeaWater' is considered as a subtype of 'Water'. The pure chemical substances can be represented when desirable by creating a 'Pure' category under the general heading (or, if functions are used, by using a '(Pure X)' function.) Thus we have a Type called 'PureWater'. Steel with iron as the majority constituent might be considered as a subtype of 'Iron'. COSMO note: Because substances are represented in COSMO as Types (classes) rather than instances, the specification of properties of substances gets involved, and the intended meanings cannot be specified fully without the use of FOL. As placeholders, some relations between substances are specified, and in OWL these will be interprted as applying only to those specific Substances (Type that are instances of SubstanceType), while the intended meaning is that the relation applies not only to the particular Type but to all subtypes as well. The translation of the OWL ontology to FOL should carefully handle these placeholder relations to be sure they are translated properly. . The restriction on hasGrainDiameter for SubstanceTypes (which see) should require subclasses rather than instances of LengthMeasure - instances may have to be created as a workaround. (still not decided, v0.43). NOTE that a substance at some particular concentration is a subtype of that substance. To expresss that an object contains a particular concentration of a substance, one can create a subclass of that substance having the appropriate concentration attribute, and relate the object to that concentration of substance by the relation 'hasConstituentSubstance'. This representation solves some logical problems, but creates implementation problems in restricted logics such as OWL. COSMO uses relations such as 'hasComponentSubstance', which takes PhysicalSubstance types (instances of the metatype 'SubtanceType') as the 'range' restriction. There are also relations which have subtypes of 'PhysicalSubstance' (instances of 'SubstanceType') as the domain restriction. This can be accommodated in OWL. However, in order to have restrictions apply to subtypes of types, the OWL restriction mechanism interprets the restriction as applying to instances of the type (OWL class). There are no instances of PhysicalSubstance types in COSMO, and the restriction is intended to apply to the subtypes, not to instances. Such restrictions on PhysicalSubstances will have to be interpreted by applications as meaning that the substance represented by the class has those properties. One way to solve the problem might be to create a metatype for each substance Type (i.e. for each of millions of substances), and have the restriction apply to the metatype - but this duplicates Types as metatypes, and is unworkable. COSMO leaves the proper implementation to the application, at least until it is converted in to an FOL version, where the proper interpretations can be specified by rules. CycNote: In Cyc, PhysicalSubstance's are not represented by a tree in the hierarchy, but are represented by types that are physical objects ('Partiallytangible') and also instances of 'ExistingStufType'. In effect, Cyc considers a 'substance' as the type consisting of all PhysicalObjects that are homogeneous (down to a certain granularity) and having a certain composition. This can be translated into the COSMO representation at the type and instance level, but the Cyc metatypes are not represented in COSMO. See 'HomogeneousObject' Cyc: 'ExistingStuffType' A collection of collections, and a specialization of #$TemporalStuffType. Each instance of #$ExistingStuffType is a collection of things (including portions of things) which are both temporally and spatially stufflike. Division in time or space does not destroy the stufflike quality of the object (down to a certain granularity). (#$isa STUFFTYPE #$ExistingStuffType) implies both (i) for most instances STUFF of STUFFTYPE, for any proper physical part (see #$physicalParts) PART of STUFF, PART is also an instance of STUFFTYPE and (ii) for all instances STUFF of STUFFTYPE, for most proper physical parts PART of STUFF, PART is also an instance of STUFFTYPE. For example, every piece of wood is temporally stufflike: if W-168 is a piece of wood during 1996, then it's also a piece of wood for the one-minute time-slice 9:05am 7/7/96. It's also spatially stufflike: if we take that piece of wood W-168 and cut it in half, we have two things which are both pieces of wood. Since every piece of wood is both temporally and spatially stufflike, #$Wood is an instance of #$ExistingStuffType. Other instances of #$ExistingStuffType include the collections #$AppleJuice, #$IceCream, #$Diamond, #$WaxedPaper, and #$StriatedMuscle. See the comment for #$StuffType to learn more about the distinctions between, and the need for, these four collections: #$StuffType, #$ObjectType, #$ExistingStuffType, and #$ExistingObjectType. The senses 1 and 2 of 'matter' in Random House Webster are conceptually the same as this type, where COSMO interprets sense 2 is the most generic 'matter' of which the instances of sense 1 are subtypes: 1. the substance or substances of which any physical object consists or is composed: the matter of which the earth is made. 2. physical or corporeal substance in general, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, esp. as distinguished from incorporeal substance, as spirit or mind, or from qualities, actions, and the like. Corresponds to noun sense 2 of 'substance' and sense 1 of 'stuff' and sense 1 of 'matter' and sense 1 of 'material' in WordNet; however, 'substance' is not related to 'stuff' and 'stuff' is not related to 'matter' in WordNet, and 'matter' is not used typically as a synonym of 'substance' in ordinary speech. This difference in usage reflects a difference in the way 'substances' are conceived - as either some abstract stuff of which objects consist, or of the collections of all objects of that composition, as in Cyc. COSMO chooses the notion of an abstract 'stuff'. A noun like 'matter' which, if it were taken to have a collective reading as 'all physical objects, collectively' would thereby conform to the Cyc method of representing PhysicalSubstance, and would then consistently be reinterpreted in COSMO as the same concept as 'PhysicalSubstance'. WN 'substance': 2. (4) substance - (the stuff of which an object consists) WN 'stuff': 1. (6) material, stuff - (the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object; 'coal is a hard black material'; 'wheat is the stuff they use to make bread') WN material: 1. (448) material, stuff - (the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object; 'coal is a hard black material'; 'wheat is the stuff they use to make bread') WN 'matter': 1. (41) substance, matter - (that which has mass and occupies space; an atom is the smallest indivisible unit of matter') matter material substance substance2n stuff stuff1n material material1n matter matter1n hasAttributeValue relates an Object or Substance or Event to some AttributeValue which the Object may have. Each AttributeValue will be a value for at least one AttributeType, but this relation does not specify the AttributeType. For cases where an AttributeValue may measure more than one AttributeType (such as LengthMeasure, which can specify length, width, height, altitude, distance, etc.), using this relation may leave ambiguity as to its precise meaning. COSMO Note: AttributeValues may be either classes (instances of AttributeValueType), or instances of AttributeValue. This allows one to express an attribute as a region (e.g. colors will bw classes, not instances, to permit subclassing), or for quantitative measures as instances (e.g. '25 feet'). For quantitative measures, the representation of measurements as classes would be conceptually permissible (the class representing the set of possible values, determined by the measured value and possible error), or as instances of measure to which an uncertainty value has been attached. The specific subrelations (subproperties, in OWL) of 'hasAttributeValue' will in some cases have their range restricted to AttributeValueType of AttributeValue. isAnAttributeValueOf is the inverse of 'hasAttributeValue'. This relation will be used explicitly only in special cases where particular AttributeValues are appropriately applied only to specific types of things. hasQualitativeAttribute relates individual Objects or substances to some qualitative attribute (a subclass of QualitativeAttributeValue) that the object has. The accurate use of this property for substances is difficult to express in OWL. Since Substances are classes, to describe a qualitative attribute of a substance, in OWL one would need a metatype specifically for each substance, which multiplies reified entities unnecessarily. A FOL rule would be easy to construct to correctly relate the substances to their properties, but for COSMO version 0.2 a work-around for such a rule is not yet on hand. The restrictions on substances should be interpreted as meaning necessary conditions on all subclasses of the substances. A QualitativeAttributeValue is the value of some AttributeType which is not expressed in quantitative measures. NOTE: without an objective quantitative measure, the meaning of many QualitativeAttributeValues can be very sensitive to context, in particular the type of thing that is being modified by the QualitativeAttributeValue, or the agent assigning the attribute (such as evaluative attributes - 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'). @ToDO: it may be possible to specify some subtypes of QualitativeAttributeValue that are not context-sensitive (perhaps colors), but an analysis of this question has not yet (rev833) been performed. It can be an attribute of an abstract thing or of a concrete physical object. NOTE that adjectives expressing qualities in English often have a nominalized form: 'Red-Redness' or 'Beautiful-Beauty'. When linguistically to 'have @Att-nom' (@Att-nom is the nominalized form of an attribute) is the same as 'to be @Att' where @Att is the adjectival form, the concept will be represented only once, usually in the adjectival form, and nominalized form needs to be referenced to the adjectival by the linguistic processor. Corresponds most closely to part of noun sense 1 of 'value'and includes noun sense 2 of 'attribute' in WordNet: 1. (73) value - (a numerical quantity measured or assigned or computed; 'the value assigned was 16 milliseconds') WN noun 'attribute': 2. (1) attribute - (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity) value value value1n attribute attribute2n Each PertainingAttributeValue is an AttributeValue that is related to some other type by the relation 'pertainsTo'. The exact manner in which a 'PertainingAttributeValue' can be related to the object of the 'pertainsTo' relation can vary with the noun (often representing a type) that the adjective (represented by the PertainingAttributeValue) modifies. Thus an 'historical town' would be a town in which something of sufficient interest or significance occurred to justify the mention of the town in some history book; An American president will be some person who served as President of America (not just an American who was a President of some organization). The meanings of the individual 'pertaining' relations will vary with the word modified and the adjective modifying that word. @ToDo: some 'pertaining aspect' mght be defined that categorizes the manner in which a particular 'PertainingAttributeValue' pertains to the thing pertained - . 'pertainsTo' relates an AttributeValue to some other type. This relation is used to relate AttributeValues that serve to represent adjectives to other types, so as to indicate that the word modified by the adjective is related to that other type in one of several direct ways. In dictionaries this relation is often expressed, in definitions of adjectives, by the phrase 'of or pertaining to'. In WordNet such adjectives are described as related to other words by the phrase 'pertains to'. For example, 'historical' pertains to 'history'. 'Physical-Material' is the attribute of objects that have mass, of energy, of space in out universe, of PhysicalSubstances, and of Events and processes that involve objects with mass. This is the attribute of phenomena that can be detected by measuring instruments, and are susceptible to study by experimental techniques because they follow physical laws. This is the sense used for types 'PhysicalObject' , 'PhysicalSubstance', and most other types that include Physical in the name. NOTE that 'material possessions' can include Money, which is neither a PhysicalObject nor a PhysicalSubstance, so 'Money' does not have this attribute, and 'material possessions' would have to be a defined term in itself. @ToDo: add it if needed. Because this includes physical Events, it does not correspond exactly to sense 2 of adjective 'material' in WordNet. Corresponds to adjective sense 3 of 'physical', and includes but is not rstricted to adjective sense 2 of 'material' in WordNet: 3. (6) physical - (having substance or material existence; perceptible to the senses; 'a physical manifestation'; 'surrounded by tangible objects') WN adjecgtive 'material': 2. (4) material - (derived from or composed of matter; "the material universe") . physical physical physical3adj material material material2adj A Group consisting exclusively of PhysicalObjects. One may consider the collection of disjoint parts of a physical object as a Group, but in doing so one must ignore the relations among the objects, so the ObjectGroup consisting of the parts of a connected PhysicalObject is not identical to the whole object itself. NOTE: the range includes PhysicalObjectType so that we can point to a necessary element of a certain type without requiring that the inference engine Skolemize that type In SUMO, this is called a 'Collection'. NO identical Cyc class seems to be defined. SUMO: Collections have members like Classes, but, unlike Classes, they have a position in space-time and members can be added and subtracted without thereby changing the identity of the Collection. Some examples are toolkits, football teams, and flocks of sheep. The property of substances or objects that are considered (by their possesor) to have no positive value. This is used for a lack of either monetary, emotional, or social value. However, **NOTE** that such objects or substances may be considered by someone else as having some value, so this is not disjoint with 'ValuableThing'; and exampel is 'Scrap', material thrown out by its owner that nevertheless can be reprocessed into useful material. Corresponds to adjective sense 1 of 'worthless' in WordNet: 1. (1) worthless - (lacking in usefulness or value; "a worthless idler") worthless worthless1adj The property of substances or objects that are considered (by their possesor or potential possessor) to have some positive value. This is for both monetary and emotional value. For high levels of value, the monetary and emotional are distinguished as 'Precious' and 'cherished', respectively. Includes both adjective senses 1 and 2 of 'valuable' in WordNet: 1. (16) valuable - (having great material or monetary value especially for use or exchange; "another human being equally valuable in the sight of God"; "a valuable diamond") 2. (5) valuable, worthful - (having worth or merit or value; "a valuable friend"; "a good and worthful man") Anything that has value to a cognitive agent. The value does not have to be monetary, it can be sentimental. The thing can be an object, a right, a substance, or something intangible such as friendship or knowledge. Anything that would cause distress to an agent if it were lost is a valuable thing. Anything that can be used to help an agent achieve desired goals (e.g. food) is also a valuable thing - see the subtype 'Resource'. Anything that an intelligent agent would pay money to obtain is a valuable thing; in this case, the 'value' is at least approximately quantifiable. NOTE that 'valuable', as with 'Worthless' are EvaluativeAttributes, and some people may consider a thing 'valuable' while others consider it 'worthless'; the two are not disjoint. 'isTheAttributeOfSomethingThatCanUndergo' relates a type of 'AttributeValue' that attributes a capability or propensity or susceptibility (e.g. 'breakable') to the type of Event that can be or is likely to be performed by the Entity or on the Entity having that attribute. Grammatically, the object may be the subject or object of the verb indicating the type of Event, but semantically it should be a 'patient' in the sense of something that is affected by the Event. The Event specified is often an Action, and the Entity may be the agent of the Action, but not necessarily, as in the case of 'breakable' where the thing that breaks (may undergo a 'BreakingEvent') may be the patient of an Action, or may break even without an agent causing the breakage. This may be used to relate certain attributes labeled by words ending in '-able' to the actions that form the first part of that attribute word. . 'hasTheAttributeNominalForm' relates an instance of 'AttributeValueType' (i.e. an AttributeValue) to a word that is used in a different grammatical structure to express the same attribute; e.g. in English, to 'be charming' is to 'have charm'. The notions expressed are identical, but the linguistic expression can alternate. This alternation is expresse din COSMO by relating the AttributeValue 'Charming' to the word 'ENG_charm' by the relation 'hasTheAttributeNominalForm '. In using this relation, the lexical forms should be prefixed by their language codes, so that any language can be referenced using this relation. For the 'ldoce' and 'wordnet' relations, the language is assumed to be English. In English, many of the nominal forms of attributes pointed to by this relation will have the lexical ending 'ness'. A 'LexicalRelation' is a DatatypeProperty that relates some entity in COSMO to a String that expresses the same basic notion as the COSMO entity, but is used in a gramatically different manner than the lexical entities mapped to the subject entity. Thus, the word 'charm' is mapped to the COSMO type 'Charming' (an AttributeValue, expressed as an adjective) to the word 'charm', a noun, by the relation 'isTheNominalFormOfAttribute'. Likewise, the base form of verbs (not used as labels in COSMO, but mapped to Events) can be related to the COSMO Event by the relation 'isTheBaseVerbalFormOfEvent'. NOTE that the strings may have a language code as a prefix, such as 'ENG_move' for the English word 'move'. In the absence of a prefix, the default language is English. 'hasTheVerbalForm' relates an instance of 'EventType' (i.e. a type of Event) to a word that is used in a different grammatical structure to express the same attribute. Thus the Event 'motion' is expressed as the base verb 'move'. There may be more than one word expressing a concept, and a concept will map to different words in different languages. . 'Susceptible' is the parent category of AttributeValues that specify an ability to be the patient of some action - indicating a suceptibility or tendency or propensity. Thus 'breakable' is a susceptibiity to undergo a 'BreakingEvent'. These AttributeValues can be related by the relation 'isTheAttributeOfSomethingThatCanUndergo' to the Event that they csn be patients in. Corresponds to part of adjective sense 1 of 'susceptible' in RHW: 1. (2) susceptible - - ((often followed by `of' or `to') yielding readily to or capable of; "susceptible to colds"; "susceptible of proof") susceptible susceptible1adj A specialization of #$MentalSituation (q.v.) each instance of which has a single agent (normally an #$IndividualAgent) as its subject . A subject in this sense is an agent who has, undergoes, experiences, entertains, or performs the mental situation, as the case may be. Instances of #$MentalSituation-SingleSubject can be mental _events_ (see #$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent) such as acts of perception or mental _states_ (see #$MentalState) such as Alice's loving Bob. This collection excludes any mental situations that have more than one subject, such as (perhaps) an event of mutual recognition between two people, as well as any mental situations that have no proper subject at all, such as (perhaps) an event of mass hysteria or a state involving the Jungian collective unconscious . It of course does not exclude a given mental situation merely because it happens to _involve_ more than one agent; Alice's loving Bob involves two people, but Alice is nevertheless its only subject. The two notable specializations of this collection are #$IntentionalMentalSituation and #$StateOfUnconsciousness. c08529b5-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 COSMO note: DOLCE distinguishes Events that have temporal parts with similar character, i.e. the same sort of thing occurs throughout the tie interval of the Event. In OpenCyc, such 'homogeneous' events are represented using 'StuffType' metaclasses. A special subclass is the 'State' where nothing happens over some time interval. 'State' is an important concept in PSL and situation calculus. DOLCE: An occurrence-type is stative or eventive according to whether it holds of the mereological sum of two of its instances, i.e. if it is cumulative or not. A sitting occurrence is stative since the sum of two sittings is still a sitting occurrence. COSMO: a Capability is an attribute of some physical object or PhysicalSubstance that specifies some role that that object or substance may play in events or processes. This is a very broad concept, including participation in actions (as agent or instrument or object acted on) and passive processes. Linguistically, 'Capability' is a nominalized form of 'capable', but in COSMO the adjective and nominalized form are represented as a single concept. In general, it is not necessary or desirable to list all the roles that an object may play, as in many cases those roles may be very numerous. This 'attribute' would be used rather to indicate the more salient roles that an object can play. For example, a Person who has a particular talent or skill could have that skill specified (e.g. 'AbilityToDanceTheTango'); a company that can make a particular product would have that capability specified (e.g. 'AbilityToManufactureWidgets'). For people, Capabilities to do specific actions often come in a wide range of degrees of expertise. Another important 'Capability' is categorized under the subtype 'Tendency', which specifies the way that an object is likely to behave; the tendency of non-living organic material to decompose when not frozen is an example of such a tendency. See 'Tendency' for additional discussion of that subtype. NOTE that to have a Capability does not mean that it is possible for the agent to perform that action at any time, or even that the agent has performed that action. There may be motivational inhibitions or blocking conditions that prevent an agent from exercising a Capability at any given time and place. Each CapabilityType represents the ability to serve in some Role in some type of Action or Event. The RoleType and ActionType are specified by the relations 'isAbilityToServeInRole' and 'isAbilityToServeInActionType', repsectively. For any given Capability Type, the Roles and ActionTypes specified are interpreted to mean that the entity having that capability can serve in any of those Roles, in any of those Actions. **But** is is understood that for any given situation, there may be circumstances that prevent the Agent or Object from serving in that Role. The Roles may be as Agent, to initiate evens, or as Instrument, to facilitate the actions of an Agent. @ToDO: do **computer programs** have Capabilities or only the computer that runs the program? If the program itself has capability, then this attribute would not be a property only of PhysicalObjects. How to specify that a ComputerProgram enables a computer to do things? Not resolved as of v0.48. Similar to a learned capability? Is a ComputerProgram a form of learning - at least when installed? To dissect individual capabilities, it is useful to create instances of the subtypes of this Type (InstrumentCapability or AgentCapability), and each of those instances should specify exactly what type of Action the role (Agent or Instrument) is effective in. A Capability will usually be labeled with an infinitive verbal form, with or without an object, such as 'ToDance' or 'ToEnableTelecommunication'. Each subtype of Capability is a role in some type of action that some Object can perform or assist in performing. One subtype of this is 'Function', specifically a type of action for which an object has been designed, either by some IntelligentAgent or by Evolution. Capabilities generally have more than one degree - as in 'Intelligence'. In CYC, classes representing types of capability are signaled by making them instances of a metaclass of 'capabilities'. COSMO avoids metaclasses except where necessary to serve as the type restriction on a relation's argument. Thus 'CapabilityType' is defined for that purpose. Instead of asserting a Capability on an Object, where the Role and ActionType are referenced by the CapabilityType, it is also possible oin COSMO to directly specify that an Object can serve as an Agent or Instrument by use of relations on instances or Types of Objects: canServeAsAgentInActionType canServeAsInstrumentInActionType . . . but the rules relating the logical implications of these assertions and those of asserting a CapabilityType are not representable in a simple OWL format. Extensions may use SWRL for this. The relation between a 'Capability' and the actual instance of physical action is 'wasRealizedByAction'. @ToDo: more elaboration needed (v0.45). Higher-arity relations would be useful here: {{?x hasCapability ?y} impliesThat {?x canPerformRole ?ROLE inEventType ?EVENTTYPE}} NOTE the triangular relation: an Artifact hasDesignFunction which is a CapabilityType, A Capability or Function wasRealizedByAction which is an *instance* of an Event or Action Type. see also 'ableToAffect' Cyc NOTE: Cyc has several higher-arity relations that relate an object or person to their ability or intended function. Similar relations may be defined when COSMO is convertable to FOL ******** QuaternaryPredicate rdf:ID='actsInCapacity'> rdfs:comment The predicate #$actsInCapacity indicates the capacity in which an agent participates in certain kinds of actions. (#$actsInCapacity AGENT ROLE SCRIPT-TYPE CAP) means that the agent AGENT plays the role ROLE in instances of SCRIPT-TYPE, and s/he does that role in the capacity CAP. CAP is a #$CapacityAttribute (q.v.) which describes the AGENT's mode of participation-e.g., as a job, hobby, main function, support function, etc. Contrast three cases of acts of #$GreetingSomeone, when #$performedBy: (1) instances of #$Receptionist, in their #$JobCapacity and as their #$MainFunction; (2) instances of #$FlightAttendant, in their #$JobCapacity but as a #$SupportFunction; and (3) instances of #$TrainEngineer, in a #$HobbyCapacity (though they do it while working, it's not part of their job) /QuaternaryPredicate TernaryPredicate rdf:ID='actsInCapacity-IntendedFunction' rdfs:comment: An instance of #$CapacityPredicate (#$actsInCapacity-IntendedFunction AGENT ROLE EVENT-TYPE) holds just in case when AGENT is performing ROLE in events of type EVENT-TYPE the agent is performing the event as one of its intended functions. For instance, if a stock broker is the buyer of stocks in some #$StockTrading, then (#$actsInCapacity-IntendedFunction Bob-TheStockBroker #$buyer #$StockTrading) holds. /TernaryPredicate TernaryPredicate rdf:ID='actsInCapacity-JobCapacity' rdfs:comment(#$actsInCapacity-JobCapacity AGT ROLE EVT-TYPE) holds just in case AGT's ROLE in acts of EVT-TYPE is in the capacity of a job. /TernaryPredicate ****************** Corresponds to parts of noun sense 1 of 'capability' and senses 1 and 3 of 'power' and senses 1 and 2 of 'ability' and adjective senses 1, 2, and 3 of 'able' in WordNet; the more specific ability of agents is represented by 'AgentCapability'.: (for the notion of 'could' use 'hasCapability' 1. (674) power, powerfulness - (possession of controlling influence; 'the deterrent power of nuclear weapons'; 'the power of his love saved her'; 'his powerfulness was concealed by a gentle facade') 3. (77) ability, power - (possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done; 'danger heightened his powers of discrimination') WN 'capability': 1. (8) capability, capableness - (the quality of being capable - physically or intellectually or legally; 'he worked to the limits of his capability') WN noun 'ability': 1. (20) ability - (the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment) WN adjective 'able': 1. (70) able - ((usually followed by `to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something; 'able to swim'; 'she was able to program her computer'; 'we were at last able to buy a car'; 'able to get a grant for the project') 2. (7) able, capable - (have the skills and qualifications to do things well; 'able teachers'; 'a capable administrator'; 'children as young as 14 can be extremely capable and dependable') 3. (4) able - (having inherent physical or mental ability or capacity; 'able to learn'; 'human beings are able to walk on two feet'; 'Superman is able to leap tall buildings') power can could power power1n power3n capability capability1n ability ability ability1n can able able1adj A DesignFunction is the ability to do something or to enable doing something by acting as an instrument. This notion encompasses two different roles in an Event, and is therefore an aggregate concept that is high-level in COSMO. Its subtypes will be roles in Events which may be Actions (doing something) or merely non-active participations (being an instrument). This is the function that an artifact is designed to perform, when it is designed to perform a function, or the function that an evolved part of an organism is designed to perform, by evolution. Each subtype of Capability is a type of action that some Object can perform or assist in performing. One subtype of this is 'Function', specifically a type of action for which an object has been designed, either by some IntelligentAgent or by Evolution. @ToDo: more elaboration needed. NOTE the triangular relation: an Artifact hasDesignFunction which is an ActionType, A Capability or Function wasRealizedByAction which is an *instance* of an Event or Action Type.. COSOMO note: 'Tendency' is an AttributeValue that specifies how objects will normally behave over some interval of time. An instance of 'Tendency' can be complex, including multiple possible ways an object may behave, depending on different situations or stimuli. This is an AttributeValue of Objects or Substances that behave according to physical laws, and not a conscious disposition to act that is observed in Animals. The animal disposition to act in specific ways is represented by the type 'BehavioralDisposition', and its subtypes, and is not an AttributeType, but a mental state (a subtype of MentalEvent). This distinction reflects the fact that a 'tendency' of inanimate things to undergo natural processes (e.g. decomposition) arises from different kinds of causes than dispositions to behave in som specific way. @ToDo: the detailed structure of tendency has not yet (v0.62) been elaborated. In BFO this Type is called 'Disposition' but the term 'Tendency' is used in COSMO. This high-level category is **very general** and at present includes the meanings of verb 'to tend' as well as the attribute 'tendency'. @ToDo: distinguish between a Tendency (attribute) and having a Tendency Specializations of 'Tendency' can be attributes of inanimate objects or of animate objects, and can point to simple physical behavior, such as the tendency of heavier-than-air objects to fall to the Earth, or of chemical behavior, such as the tendency of organic materials to decompose, or of animal and human behavior, such as the tendency of animnals to get hungry over time, the tendency of geographical features (e.g. mountains) to stay where they are for a very long time. The properties referenced by a Tendency may also be implied in other relations (such as the laws of physics, chemistry and biology), but the 'Tendency' Type is useful to provide a cumulative aggregated description of the *significant* behaviors of objects that are likely to affect the course of events in some real-world situation. In a way, assigning a Tendency to an Object can help in resolving the 'Frame Problem', which reflects the inability to predict with accuracy how conditions may change over time. If Tendencies are assigned with realistic probabilities, then the state of a system at some time in the future will be more accurately predictable than in the absence of such knowledge. For most problems that have been modeled in computer systems, the model has been simplified to make it tractable, but to deal with real-world situations, the complexity of reality must be represented in some way. This category of 'Tendency' is one tool with with to do so. 'Tendency' is an AttributeValue, rather than an AttributeType. Thus the tendency ('OrganicDecomposition') of organic tissue that is no longer part of an organism to decompose (due to chemical, biochemical, and bactrial processes) would be one subtype of 'Tendency'. It would be an Attribute of tissues, and would be one of several AttributeValues that are values for the AttributeType 'Stability'. There is some relation between tendencies and QualitativeAttributes, so Tendency subtypes may be deisngated as instances of QualitativeAttributeType, and be used wuth the ;'hasQualitativeAttribute' relation, as well as the 'hasTendencey' relation. The implications of either relation should be the same, when a FOL representation is implemented. BFO Definition: A realizable entity that always or with a significant degree of regularity initiates a process or transformation in the independent continuant it is a disposition of, under specific circumstances. A general formula for dispositions is: X (object) has the disposition D to (transform, initiate a process) R under conditions C. BFO Examples: the disposition of vegetables to decay when not refrigerated, the disposition of a vase to break if dropped, the disposition of blood to coagulate, the disposition of a patient with a weakened immune system to contract disease. Corresponds to verb sense 1 of 'tend' and noun senses 2, 3, and 4 of 'tendency' in WordNet: 1. (60) tend, be given, lean, incline, run - (have a tendency or disposition to do or be something; be inclined; "She tends to be nervous before her lectures"; "These dresses run small"; "He inclined to corpulence") WN 'tendency': 1. (11) inclination, disposition, tendency - (an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others; "he had an inclination to give up too easily"; "a tendency to be too strict") 2. (6) leaning, propensity, tendency - (an inclination to do something; "he felt leanings toward frivolity") 3. (6) tendency, inclination - (a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect; "the alkaline inclination of the local waters"; "fabric with a tendency to shrink") disposition tend tend tend1v tendency tendency tendency2n tendency3n tendency4n The BFO term for 'Tendency'. A less common term for 'Tendency', . A less common term for 'Tendency', . A less common term for 'Tendency', . 'Steady' is a very broad attribute asserting that some object, process, or attribute is relatively unchanging over some interval of time (which may or may not be specified). See subtypes to differentiate the kinds of things about which this attribute can be asserted. Note that an object can be 'Steady' while still moving. For no motion (relative to some frame) use 'Motionless' Includes adjective senses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of 'stable' in WordNet: 1. (6) stable - (resistant to change of position or condition; 'a stable ladder'; 'a stable peace'; 'a stable relationship'; 'stable prices') 2. (2) stable - (firm and dependable; subject to little fluctuation; 'the economy is stable') 3. stable - (not taking part readily in chemical change) 4. stable - (maintaining equilibrium) 5. static, stable, unchanging - (showing little if any change; 'a static population') stable stable1adj stable2adj stable3adj stable4adj stable5adj The Tendency of an object or substance to continue without perceptible change for at least several hours, in the Earth's gravitational field, an normal temperatures (10-30 deg. C).. Longer degrees of persistence will have attributes or tendencies that are subtypes of this Type, representing the higher levels of stability. This Attribute is very general, modifying Objects or Processes; for the sense of 'stable' modifying attributes, use 'Static' @ToDo: subtypes (particularly for substances) may be recognizable, but the WordNet senses are otherwise difficult to differentiate logically. Includes adjective senses 1, 2, 3, and 4 of 'stable' in WordNet: 1. (6) stable - (resistant to change of position or condition; 'a stable ladder'; 'a stable peace'; 'a stable relationship'; 'stable prices') 2. (2) stable - (firm and dependable; subject to little fluctuation; 'the economy is stable') 3. stable - (not taking part readily in chemical change) 4. stable - (maintaining equilibrium) stable stable1adj stable2adj stable3adj stable4adj A PersistentState is an Event in which all relevant attributes or relations (any one or more 'fluents' in PSL) remains constant over some time interval. A special limiting subtype would be an InstantaneousState, for which the time interval is of zero duration. A PersitentState can be represented even though some attributes of a system may be changing, if the knowledge enterer chooses to focus only on those attirubtes that are not changing, and does not represent the attributes that are changing. For example, a person can be represented as being in a sitting state even though s/he may be doing many things in that interval of time. An agent can be doing things during a PersistentState, as long as the relevant attribute that characterizes the state remains during all parts of the state, within some level of granularity. NOTE That if an Object is specified as having some Attribute during some interval of time, that is equivalent to specifying the existence of a PersistentState for that Object during that interval. NOTE also that representing a PersistentState in which some attribute(s) remain constant over some interval of time does *not* imply that there are no attributes that change. A person sitting in a chair can be represented as a persistent state of sitting, while at the same time many internal biological proceses may be going on. The meaning a a PersistentState, as well as for Events generally, only extends to those attributes (or fluents) that are explicitly represented in (or logically inferred from) the represented description of the Event/PersistentState. COSMO note: linguistically, the existence of a PersistentState may be expressed by asserting a 'state', 'condition' or 'situation', or by using a verb or an adjective. One can say "the airplane was flying for three hours"; 'the balloon stayed in the air several days'; 'Tom remained sitting during the party'; 'his face was red for five minutes'; 'He was angry for a week'; 'the motor ran continuously for a week'. COSMO note: DOLCE has a convoluted description of what a 'State' is. For COSMO, a PersistentState (what appears to be a 'State' in DOLCE) it is very simply an Event in which none of the represented attributes change over some interval of time - - i.e. nothing changes that the knowledge enterer considers significant for her/his purposes. This can be viewed as the limiting case of an Event, in which so little of significance happens that it is not worth mentioning. Or, it can be simply the representation of certain attributes of a system that are not changing, while ignoring other attributes that may be changing. DOLCE: Within stative occurrences, we distinguish between states and processes according to homeomericity: sitting is classified as a state but running is classified as a process, since there are (very short) temporal parts of a running that are not themselves runnings.In general, states differ from situations because they are not assumed to have a description from which they depend. They can be sequenced by some course, but they do not require a description as a unifying criterion.On the other hand, at any time, one can conceive a description that asserts the constraints by which a state of a certian type is such, and in this case, it becomes a situation.Since the decision of designing an explicit description that unifies a perdurant depends on context, task, interest, application, etc., when aligning an ontology to DLP, there can be indecision on where to align a state-oriented class. For example, in the WordNet alignment, we have decided to put only some physical states under 'state', e.g. 'turgor', in order to stress the social orientedness of DLP. But whereas we need to talk explicitly of the criteria by which we conceive turgor states, these will be put under 'situation'.Similar considerations are made for the other types of perdurants in DOLCE.A different notion of event (dealing with change) is currently investigated for further developments: being 'achievement', 'accomplishment', 'state', 'event', etc. can be also considered 'aspects' of processes or of parts of them. For example, the same process 'rock erosion in the Sinni valley' can be conceptualized as an accomplishment (what has brought the current state that e.g. we are trying to explain), as an achievement (the erosion process as the result of a previous accomplishment), as a state (if we collapse the time interval of the erosion into a time point), or as an event (what has changed our focus from a state to another).In the erosion case, we could have good motivations to shift from one aspect to another: a) causation focus, b) effectual focus, c) condensation d) transition (causality). If we want to consider all the aspects of a process together, we need to postulate a unifying descriptive set of criteria (i.e. a 'description'), according to which that process is circumstantiated in a 'situation'. The different aspects will arise as a parts of a same situation. Corresponds to noun sense 4 of 'state', and part of verb sense 1 of 'stay' and senses 1 and 2 of 'remain', in WordNet and includes verb sense 2 of 'stay' which is more specifically represented by the COSMO subtype 'RemainingInaLocation': 4. (142) state - (the way something is with respect to its main attributes; 'the current state of knowledge'; 'his state of health'; 'in a weak financial state') WN noun 'stay' : 1. (415) stay - (continuing or remaining in a place or state; 'they had a nice stay in Paris'; 'a lengthy hospital stay'; 'a four-month stay in bankruptcy court') WN verb 'stay': 1. (43) stay, remain, rest - (stay the same; remain in a certain state; 'The dress remained wet after repeated attempts to dry it'; 'rest assured'; 'stay alone'; 'He remained unmoved by her tears'; 'The bad weather continued for another week') 2. (32) stay, stick, stick around, stay put - (stay put (in a certain place); 'We are staying in Detroit; we are not moving to Cincinnati'; 'Stay put in the corner here!'; 'Stick around and you will learn something!') state state state4n stay stay stay1n stay1v stay2v remain remain1v remain2v Each InternalState is a PersistentState in which some set of component parts of a System maintain a stable configuration (the properties of the components and relations among them are constant within the limits considered significant) for some interval of time. The system can be a living organism or part of an organism, or some artifact that is designed to have alternative internal states (such as a thermostat). Feelings of cognitive agents are example of InternalState. A specialization of #$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent. Each instance of this collection is an event which is 'strictly mental' in the sense that if the event is instantiated by some physical situation, that instantiating situation is not essential to the event being an event of that type. For instance, perceiving an apple is not an instance of #$StrictlyMentalEvent insofar as it essentially requires sense organs and an apple (and thus #$Perceiving is not a specialization of #$StrictlyMentalEvent). However, the phenomenological aspects of this event, e.g., the experience of redness or roundness, do not require the sense organs or the apple, and it is conceivable that a disembodied mind could have such experiences. (Thus, #$ExperiencingPerception is a specialization of #$StrictlyMentalEvent.) Note that the property defining this collection is primitive and notoriously difficult to define, except via examples. If an event is not clearly an instance of #$ExperiencingPerception, entertaining a thought (#$Thinking), or #$ExperiencingEmotion, or fully decomposable into a collection of such events, then one should be very careful about making it in an instance of #$StrictlyMentalEvent. be48d9d6-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 hasParticipant relates an Event to the things (Objects, Substances) that participate in the Event in some role, as causative agents, or as instruments, or as products or in other roles (e.g. as witnesses). This is the most general 'case' relation that is conceptual rather than strictly grammatical. It can be used to express a relation between types or instances. It will usually be used to refer to past Events, but may refer to future or hypothetical Events.. Participants include the inputs and outputs of Events that are creation or destruction events. See, for example, 'produced'. COSMO note: Objects may 'participate' in an Event without being a 'patient', for example in a BeliefState the Belief involved is a participant in the Event, but the properties of the belief involved are not among the fluents that are affected by the Event. Rather, in that case, the relationship between the Agent and the belief is the fluent. NOTE: 'TopicType is added to the domain so that 'hasSubjectOfStudy' can be a subrelation of this relation. @ToDo: needs rethinking. the inverse of 'hasParticipant'. This relation points from an instance of Object (physical or abstract) to an Event in which the Object participated (in any role). hadMainParticipant relates an Event to the Object whose properties and relations ('fluents') are the primary things begin represented by the specific type of Event. This relation is used for Events for which a single participant is the dominant theme. The MainParticipant will usually be the subject in an assertion in the active voice, even if it is not an Agent. For things that are acted on, use 'hadAffectedObject'. NOTE that a 'participant' in certain Events, such as Actions involving study or investigation, can be a whole class of entities. A specialization of #$Situation. Each instance of #$SystemCondition is a state or process undergone by some natural or artificial system (for example, an organism or a computer network). The state or process in question may be either normal or abnormal. A typical instance of #$SystemCondition is a state or process that has important temporal aspects, or affects the system's condition for a significant period of time, such that the condition may be thought of as an 'episode' in the existence of the system, or even a permanent aspect of the system. COSMO note: this Cyc category is interpreted as a PersistentState (a subtype of Event), meaning that the situation stays constant over some period of time. If the condition is some process (rotating), then the process should be constant over that interval, e.g. the rate of turn should be constant, within the limits of interest to the ontologist. Corresponds to sense 1 of 'condition' in WordNet: 1. (455) condition, status -- (a state at a particular time; 'a condition (or state) of disrepair'; 'the current status of the arms negotiations') c1346159-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 condition condition condition1n A specialization of #$Situation-Localized. Each instance of #$PhysicalSituation is a spatially localized situation involving one or more physical objects or stuffs (see #$situationConstituents). Important specializations include #$PhysicalEvent and #$AilmentCondition. 7bdc4888-8636-41d7-894d-9e94e3976266 COSMO note: in COSMO we do not specifically require that a PhysiologicalCOndition be 'abnormal', as is suggested by the Cyc documentation. This category in COSMO is used solely to refer to any state of an organism. This is subject to review. Cyc: A specialization of #$SystemCondition. Each instance of #$PhysiologicalCondition involves an #$Organism-Whole being in some physiological state that is not typical for that organism's species, modulo considerations about the organism's sex or (in some cases) subspecies. Thus #$Menstruating, though not typical among all persons, is part of being a healthy adult female, and so is not a specialization of #$PhysiologicalCondition (though it is a type of #$PhysiologicalProcess); #$Pregnancy, on the other hand, is a specialization of #$PhysiologicalCondition. Note that some but not all #$PhysiologicalConditions are events; but they are all #$Situations. Thus each physiological condition has a temporal start and end, though in some cases (e.g. dwarfism) these will be the same as the start and end of the life of the organism. @ToDo: 'good condition' as used in exercise - to be 'in condition' should be a subtype of this. As with the parent 'SystemCondition', this sense may be referred to linguistically simply as 'condition' - 'what condition is he in?' WordNet does not explicitly distinguish a PhysiologicalCondition from its parent. WN 'condition' 1. (455) condition, status - (a state at a particular time; 'a condition (or state) of disrepair'; 'the current status of the arms negotiations') c10c3859-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 condition condition condition1n wasPerformedByAgent points from an Action to the Agent(s) that performed that Action. It is in the past tense, as Events in COSMO are considered as bounded in time, and must be in the past after the end point. There may be more than one Agent related by this relation, and the relation may point to a Group of agents. NOTE that a party to a conflict, such as a company struck by a LaborUnion, may be a passive or unwilling participant in teh Action. @ToDo: As of rev885, it is not necessary that all parties to a conflict be included in the value of this relation. This 'perform' relation includes the 'experiencer' case role for mental events. The inverse of 'wasPerformedByAgent' - relates an agent (or agents) to the action in which s/he was principle agent. 'wasExperiencedBy' points from a MentalEvent or AilmentCondition to the 'IntentionalAgent' that performed (experienced) that Event. It is in the past tense, as Events in COSMO are considered as bounded in time, and must be in the past after the end point. The inverse of 'wasExperiencedBy' - relates an agent to some experience in which s/he was principle agent. @ToDo: include ailments of plants?? Corresponds to part of verb sense 3 of experience and part of verb sense 3 of 'have' in WordNet, including ailments and MentalEvents, but not applying to inanimate things: 3. (220) experience, receive, have, get, undergo - (go through (mental or physical states or experiences); 'get an idea'; 'experience vertigo'; 'get nauseous'; 'undergo a strange sensation'; 'The chemical undergoes a sudden change'; 'The fluid undergoes shear'; 'receive injuries'; 'have a feeling') have have have3v experience experience experience3v A PersistentState that is a MentalEvent. A 'Feeling' is the Action of experiencing some internal state described as 'a feeling' or, in a more intense form, 'an emotion'. COSMO note: This is not the act of 'feeling something by touching', which is represented by 'Perceiving' and 'TouchingDeliberately'; Linguistically this can be expressed by saying that someone 'is feeling' something or 'has a feeling of' something. To say one 'is feeling sadness' is equivalent to saying on 'is feeling sad', though the adjective is represented as an AttributeValue, and the noun is represented as a 'Feeling'. As an Event, a Feeling has a beginning time and an ending time. Most Feelings have degress of intensity. The logical description of 'Feeling' is still evolving. At present (rev841) a 'feeling' is a MentalState that causes a 'IntentionalAgent' to think in a manner differently from how that person whould think if not experiencing that Feeling. Knowledge can also cause a Person to behave differently, but Knolwedge and Feelings are logically disjoint; Knowledge is a MentalObject, 'Feeling' is an Event' and Objects and Events are disjoint in COSMO. This necessary requirement of 'Feeling' has not been axiomatized as yet, and may require FOL rules. For some detailed thoughts about feelings, see Marvin Minsky's book 'The Emotion Machine'. In Cyc a feeling is called 'FeelingAttribute' and classified very differently, though the intended meaning is the same. In COSMO, feelings and emotions are considered as PersistentStates - events in which some more or less constant mental process that does not involve symbolic thinking is going on. Feelings are vague and only can be labeled in very general terms. All different types of feeling are primitive concepts. feelings include emotions, worries, concerns, elation, many others. NOTE that in COSMO, 'Sensation' (a type of Perception' is also a subtype of 'Feeling'. Cyc: The collection of all emotions and mental feelings. As an emotion/feeling can be experienced in various degrees of intensity, an instance of #$FeelingAttribute is some particular relative amount of happiness, confidence, fear, or whatever. These relative amounts can be measured using the #$GenericValueFunctions (q.v.), such as #$LowAmountFn, #$VeryHighAmountFn, etc. For example, (#$LowAmountFn #$Happiness) is the #$FeelingAttribute of feeling a relatively low amount of happiness. (Note that #$Happiness itself is not an individual feeling attribute but a _collection_ of #$FeelingAttributes - a #$FeelingType (q.v.) - whose instances are the individual attributes of feeling particular relative amounts of happiness; (#$LowAmountFn #$Happiness) is one such instance.) This corresponds to verb sense 1 of 'feel' and noun sense 1 of 'feeling' in WordNet; WN 'feel': 1. (182) feel, experience - (undergo an emotional sensation; 'She felt resentful'; 'He felt regret') WN 'feeling': 1. (50) feeling - (the experiencing of affective and emotional states; 'she had a feeling of euphoria'; 'he had terrible feelings of guilt'; 'I disliked him and the feeling was mutual') bd5882fe-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270 feel feel1v feeling feeling1n A DirectedFeeling is a Feeling that is directed toward, and sometimes caused by, something external to the Agent - an Event or Object. Disgust is a Feeling that may be directed at an Object. Joy may be caused by an Event. refersToExternalEntity relates a MentalObject (e.g. a document, goal, fear) or a Communication to some external entity that is explicitly referenced in the MentalObject or Communication. The external entity may be any kind of entity: physical object, topic of study, event past or future. A Goal may, for example, focus on some Event or State that the agent wants to happen. @@@ToDo NOTE that by allowing 'Communication' and InformationTransferEvent, an Event, to be a subject of this relation we are to some extent conflating the Communication act with the subject of the communication. These parts should be distinguished, but because of the limnited expressivity of OWL, at v0.36 this conflation is allowed, to make the ontology easier to work with until a better tool is adopted. 'isDirectedToward' relates a DirectedFeeling to the thing that the Feeling is dorected at. A Motive can be a single reason for doing something, or a complex group of individual reasons. A Motive is a MentalObject (an Object of thought) that points to a goal state that an agent wants to achieve by her/his own actions. The Motive may be created as a result of a past Event (something as simple as an Urge), but needs to have some future state as the focus. For example, 'revenge' as a Motive would arise as a result of some Action by an agent (agent1) that offends another agent (agent2), causing agent2 to have a Motive to do something that would in turn perturb agent1; the perturbance of agent1 would in this case be the goal state that is pointed to by the Motive. Verbally expressed, a 'Motive' seems close to a 'Desire'but in COSMO we treat 'Motive' as a MentalObject that is created by some past action, and a 'Desire' can be such an Action. The difference is that a Desire does not necessarily create an intention or a plan to achieve the desired state; a Motive moves one step from a Desire to forming a MentalObject that visualizes the desired goal state as the template from which an Intention or a Plan can be formed. One sense of 'reason' can also be a subtype of 'Motive' - a rational description of the cuase for an action and the goal state intended; but the cause does not have to be rational, it could just be a Feeling - see 'Urge'. Includes noun sense 1 of 'motive', part of sense 2 of 'ground', part of sense 1 of 'reason', in WordNet: 1. the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior; 'we did not understand his motivation'; 'he acted with the best of motives' WN noun 'reason': 1. (78) reason, ground - (a rational motive for a belief or action; 'the reason that war was declared'; 'the grounds for their declaration') WN-N: sense 1 of 'motive', in synset 'motive, motivation, need'. motive motive1n reason reason reason1n ground ground ground2n A 'Rule' is a special kind of Proposition that asserts that some system or structure is or should be structured in a certain way, or that some agent should behave in a certain way. This is a very general sense of 'rule' including laws of nature, rules for behavior, principles for design of artifacts. Most uses of this type will be through the more specific subtypes. Rules such as a LawOfNature are not created by IntelligentAgents, but most Rules are. Some rules such as GrammaticalRules are created by a community as a whole, in an evolutionary manner, rather than by individuals imposing their views on others. This broad sense includes senses 1,2,3,4,5,6, 9, and 10 in WordNet: 1. (16) rule, regulation - (a principle or condition that customarily governs behavior; 'it was his rule to take a walk before breakfast'; 'short haircuts were the regulation') 2. (15) convention, normal, pattern, rule, formula - (something regarded as a normative example; 'the convention of not naming the main character'; 'violence is the rule not the exception'; 'his formula for impressing visitors') 3. (10) rule, prescript - (prescribed guide for conduct or action) 4. (7) rule, linguistic rule - ((linguistics) a rule describing (or prescribing) a linguistic practice) 5. (3) principle, rule - (a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; 'their principles of composition characterized all their works') 6. (1) principle, rule - (a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; 'the principle of the conservation of mass'; 'the principle of jet propulsion'; 'the right-hand rule for inductive fields') 9. rule - (directions that define the way a game or sport is to be conducted; 'he knew the rules of chess') 10. rule - (any one of a systematic body of regulations defining the way of life of members of a religious order; 'the rule of St. Dominic') . hasDesiredSituation relates a Desire, Goal, or Rule, or Communication to the future situation that the agent with the Goal (or who created the Rule or Communication) wants to make happen. NOTE that this differs from the relation 'desires' in that 'desires' relates a 'IntentionalAgent' to the thing desired, whereas 'hasDesiredSituation' relates a MentalObject or Communication to some Situation which the MentalObject expresses as desired by some Agent. A RelativeTime is any TimeInterval or TimePoint whose location on the Universal Time Line is specified relative to some other TemporalThing. The times 'Now', 'Tomorrow' or 'Sunday' are such RelativeTimes (represented in COSMO as subtypes of this type). A TimePointOfreference is a TimePoint that is used to refer to the aspectual attribute of some Situation (i.e. SituationProcessEventOrState), i.e. an Event will be present, past, or future depending on the TimePointOfReference in the MentalObject that refers to that Situation.