A Translation Approach to Portable Ontology Specifications
T. Gruber. Knowledge Acquisition, 5 (2):
199--220(1993)
Abstract
To support the sharing and reuse of formally represented
knowledge among AI systems, it is useful to define the common
vocabulary in which shared knowledge is represented. A
specification of a representational vocabulary for a shared
domain of discourse -- definitions of classes, relations,
functions, and other objects -- is called an ontology. This
paper describes a mechanism for defining ontologies that are
portable over representation systems. Definitions written in a
standard format for predicate calculus are translated by a system
called Ontolingua into specialized representations, including
framebased systems as well as relational languages. This allows
researchers to share and reuse ontologies, while retaining the
computational benefits of specialized implementations. \\ We
discuss how the translation approach to portability addresses
several technical problems. One problem is how to accommodate the
stylistic and organizational differences among representations
while preserving declarative content. Another is how to translate
from a very expressive language into restricted languages,
remaining systemindependent while preserving the computational
efficiency of implemented systems. We describe how these problems
are addressed by basing Ontolingua itself on an ontology of
domainindependent, representational idioms.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Gruber93
%A Gruber, Thomas R.
%D 1993
%J Knowledge Acquisition
%K imported
%N 2
%P 199--220
%T A Translation Approach to Portable Ontology Specifications
%V 5
%X To support the sharing and reuse of formally represented
knowledge among AI systems, it is useful to define the common
vocabulary in which shared knowledge is represented. A
specification of a representational vocabulary for a shared
domain of discourse -- definitions of classes, relations,
functions, and other objects -- is called an ontology. This
paper describes a mechanism for defining ontologies that are
portable over representation systems. Definitions written in a
standard format for predicate calculus are translated by a system
called Ontolingua into specialized representations, including
framebased systems as well as relational languages. This allows
researchers to share and reuse ontologies, while retaining the
computational benefits of specialized implementations. \\ We
discuss how the translation approach to portability addresses
several technical problems. One problem is how to accommodate the
stylistic and organizational differences among representations
while preserving declarative content. Another is how to translate
from a very expressive language into restricted languages,
remaining systemindependent while preserving the computational
efficiency of implemented systems. We describe how these problems
are addressed by basing Ontolingua itself on an ontology of
domainindependent, representational idioms.
@article{Gruber93,
abstract = {To support the sharing and reuse of formally represented
knowledge among AI systems, it is useful to define the common
vocabulary in which shared knowledge is represented. A
specification of a representational vocabulary for a shared
domain of discourse -- definitions of classes, relations,
functions, and other objects -- is called an ontology. This
paper describes a mechanism for defining ontologies that are
portable over representation systems. Definitions written in a
standard format for predicate calculus are translated by a system
called Ontolingua into specialized representations, including
framebased systems as well as relational languages. This allows
researchers to share and reuse ontologies, while retaining the
computational benefits of specialized implementations. \\ We
discuss how the translation approach to portability addresses
several technical problems. One problem is how to accommodate the
stylistic and organizational differences among representations
while preserving declarative content. Another is how to translate
from a very expressive language into restricted languages,
remaining systemindependent while preserving the computational
efficiency of implemented systems. We describe how these problems
are addressed by basing Ontolingua itself on an ontology of
domainindependent, representational idioms.},
added-at = {2006-11-14T09:19:23.000+0100},
author = {Gruber, Thomas R.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2d006c62a46af32d2d8d74eccd75c22fa/thorob67},
interhash = {232576339f9eecc6915dec6a2ee77150},
intrahash = {d006c62a46af32d2d8d74eccd75c22fa},
journal = {Knowledge Acquisition},
keywords = {imported},
number = 2,
pages = {199--220},
timestamp = {2006-11-14T09:19:23.000+0100},
title = {A Translation Approach to Portable Ontology Specifications},
volume = 5,
year = 1993
}