Entity definitins and usage of annotation properties definition, comment, elucidation

[SArndt-TIB]

Dear EMMO-team,

I have indexed EMMO (1.0.0-beta and1.0.0-beta4) for the TIB Terminology Service and have a question regarding class definitions and the use of certain annotation properties.

As it seems, most EMMO classes do not have a definition applying the property http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_70fe84ff_99b6_4206_a9fc_9a8931836d84 [1], [2].

However, there are a number of other annotation properties in use that contain texts that (to me) appear to be descriptions of the classes and could be considered definitions [2], [3]. These are

• rdfs:comment, which is a superproperty of the definition property above
• http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_c7b62dd7_063a_4c2a_8504_42f7264ba83f, a property called comment, which (by emmo:comment) is not limited to definitions of the entities they annotate and which is also a subproperty of rdfs:comment
• http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_967080e5_2f42_4eb2_a3a9_c58143e835f9 for elucidation, which also is a subproperty of rdfs:comment and which is used for texts that in some cases also read like definitions for the entities they annotate.

At the TIB Terminology servive, we would like to map the definition texts to a description field. To do so, we need to specify the ontology properties that are used to provided definitions. In the case of EMMO we chose http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_70fe84ff_99b6_4206_a9fc_9a8931836d84, since it is most exclusively providing defintions. Since definition-like texts seem to be provided via annotation assertions using the other properties, we lack a lot of information in the description field.

We would therefore like to ask you, whether you could consider checking the respective annotations in the further development of EMMO? Are the the annotations definitions, and if so: should the property http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_70fe84ff_99b6_4206_a9fc_9a8931836d84 be used instead of rdfs:comment and the others?

Thank you and best regards

Susanne

[1]

PREFIX owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#>
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>

select * where
{?s a owl:Class .
OPTIONAL {?s <http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_70fe84ff_99b6_4206_a9fc_9a8931836d84> ?def . }
OPTIONAL {?s rdfs:comment ?comment.  }.
OPTIONAL {?s <http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_c7b62dd7_063a_4c2a_8504_42f7264ba83f> ?othercomment .  }
OPTIONAL {?s <http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_967080e5_2f42_4eb2_a3a9_c58143e835f9> ?elucidation . }
}
order by ?def

[2] example

<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://emmo.info/emmo#RapidPrototyping">
  <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Class"/>
  <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="http://emmo.info/emmo#AdditiveManufacturing"/>
  <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://emmo.info/emmo/disciplines/manufacturing#"/>
  <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://emmo.info/emmo-inferred#"/>
  <skos:prefLabel xml:lang="en">RapidPrototyping</skos:prefLabel>
  <emmo:elucidation xml:lang="en"> Application of additive manufacturing intended for reducing the time needed for producing prototypes. </emmo:elucidation>
  <skos:exactMatch>http://emmo.info/emmo#EMMO_755eaac8_735e_438c_8c19_a8b5e6a81728</skos:exactMatch>
</rdf:Description>

[3]

<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://emmo.info/emmo#Luminance">
  <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">a photometric measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction</rdfs:comment>
</rdf:Description>

[4]

<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://emmo.info/emmo#DerivedUnit">
  <emmo:elucidation xml:lang="en">Derived units are defined as products of powers of the base units corresponding to the relations defining the derived quantities in terms of the base quantities.</emmo:elucidation>
  <emmo:comment xml:lang="en">A measurement unit for a derived quantity. -- VIM</emmo:comment>
</rdf:Description>