This paper proposes a model for formalizing concept characteristics in a manner consistent with the Terminology theoretical framework. We will focus on the identification of the elements that take part in characteristic formalization and their role, as well as on the double nature of characteristic. Finally, we provide a preliminary outline of characteristics description formalization using an ontology editor called Protégé-OWL. This article shows the preliminary work of a broader project that deals with the representation of characteristics and its terminological information using Protégé-OWL. It is addressed to terminology researchers and developers that may use ontologies in order to represent specific domain conceptual systems.
In Terminology, concepts can be classified in four categories or
groups: entities, activities, relations and characteristics
The use of ontologies in applied terminology has become an
alternative to traditional terminological databases. This has lead to the
emergence of various studies within the discipline of Terminology
Next section focuses on the elements that contribute to the description of a characteristic from a terminological point of view. Finally, we outline the possibilities of formalizing these elements using Protégé-OWL. 2
In the normative document UNE EN 1066 (UNE:1066, 1991:3)
characteristic are defined as: «Characteristics serve as a basis for
classifying concepts. They are necessary for differentiating one concept
from another in a specific area and also for other functions». A similar
definition could be: «an element of a concept denoting a property of an
entity or a class of entities»
This definition answers the question ‘What is a characteristic for?’
but it does not provide satisfactory answers to the question ‘What is a
characteristic?’. Nuoponnen’s definition of characteristic answers this
question stating that a characteristic is «a concept, the referent of which
is a property of an entity»
Above definitions show that on the one hand, for a concept system, a characteristic is a property of a concept, one of the most important features for the description of a concept. On the other, characteristics are an independent concept.
In the field of ontology and knowledge engineering
Meyer
Based on this and other bibliography of Terminology, we distinguished between the different elements that make up a characteristic description, and their roles in the description. First, we delimited the two components of a characteristic: category (characteristic label) and value. Then, we took into account that a characteristic can be grouped using classes. This led us to the domain of a characteristic, the concept or concepts that can be described by a characteristic; thereafter we focused on the subject, the context in which a characteristic is used in discourse.
Characteristic label: is the category that serves to group and identify the values which may be attributed to the characteristic. It is also used as an abstract concept when it is not followed in the discourse by a value, where the label is supposed to be understood as the concept representing all the possible values of a characteristic. An example of characteristic label is ‘colour’.
Characteristic value: is a specific entity that designates an aspect of a concept. We distinguish among the ones that are expressed lexically and the rest. RED or CHINESE RED are examples of lexical characteristic values. In our analysis, we also found the following types of nonlexical values: numbers (integers, float or percentage) + measurement unit; symbols (such as GHA, GHB, GHC - values of 'chemical resistance’ in a tile) and Boolean (for instance, YES or NO for ‘frost resistance’).
Classes and subclasses of characteristic labels and values will be
grouped according to their commonalities. These commonalities are
independent of the concept they describe, for example, ‘size’ and
‘height’ are characteristics used when measuring things, and they could
be part of a class called ‘measurement’. An example of classification of
values is shown in Kageura’s work
Domain: An important relation exists between a characteristic and the concept or concepts it describes. We already mentioned the example of the characteristic ‘frost resistance’ which has a relationship with ‘tile’. Domain is the concept or group of concepts described by a characteristic. Notice that a characteristic can apply to more than one domain, even in the same context and that if a characteristic applies to a domain, concepts within this domain can also be described by that characteristic.
Area: refers to the area of specialization of a characteristic. When building a terminological database, terminographers normally enter a field that refers to the specialized area of the terms they work on. This provides explicit information, and enables future merging. 3
characteristic2 in Protégé-OWL and representation of a
Protégé OWL is an editing tool based on OWL (ontology web
language). In OWL there are different elements: owl:individual is used
to represent domain objects, owl:class represents a group of individuals
or a concept and rdf:property is used for expressing types of
relationships between instances or classes. The rdf:property element is
linked to: a domain, rdfs:domain (concept or concepts described by the
property) and a range, rdfs:range (value or values of the property).
Fuhermore, there is the owl:ObjectProperty element that links an
individual or class to an individual or class. The owl:DatatypeProperty
element links an individual or class to an XML Schema Datatype value
(numer, boolean value, symbol). Finally, using owl:annotationProperty
we can add information to classes, individuals or properties though this
information can not be processed by a reasoner
A characteristic in Protégé-OWL
For our project, first we have represented the characteristic label by means of OWL class or an individual. These classes or individuals are to be part of the taxonomy of characteristic labels or categories.
The area is formalized using an annotation property. Furthermore, we have formalized a characteristic as a descriptive element by using OWL properties. Once they have been formalized, properties are located in individuals or class descriptions.
If characteristic values are represented in a lexical form, we represented them first making use of classes and subclasses in the characteristic taxonomy. Then, we linked the value or values to the object of description by using an object property (fig. 1).
If characteristic values are not a lexical form, we used datatype properties. For example, 'glaze' is a characteristic with Boolean values, then the datatype property ‘has_glaze’ has a domain 'tile' with a Boolean range, Protégé default Boolean values are TRUE or FALSE.
Notice that in OWL there can not be more than one class or property with the same name, when needed we recommend to use prefixes and suffixes such as ‘colour_value’, ‘has_colour’ and ‘colour_prop_of'.
2 In order to avoid reader’s confusion on the different approaches to the concept ‘property’, we will use
characteristic when referring to a 'property' from a terminological point of view
To describe that a 'characteristic label’ represents the same concept as a property, and describes a specific concept or concepts, we used a new object property. This is done using OWL syntax. For example, ‘glaze_prop_of’ is a property whose domain is ‘glaze’ and range is “has_glaze value TRUE” (fig.3). By applying a reasoner such as Fact++ we infer that a range of this property whose domain is the characteristic label 'glaze' (class) is the entity concept 'glazed_tile' (class).
In this paper, we have set boundaries on the elements involved in the description of a characteristic and their roles. We are currently working on the formalization of tile characteristics following this description and testing the representation of characteristic labels by means of instances. Since some lacks have been detected regarding the ‘translation’ of characteristic in Terminology using knowledge representation concepts, future work is motivated by a further research in this area. Furthermore, characteristics have a number of properties related to their role in concepts description, for example characteristic can be essential, complementary (Cabré, 1992:184) or distinctive (ISO:704, 2000:5), as well as extrinsic or intrinsic (Cabré, 1992:185). Formalization of those properties and other semantic relations forms part of a future work we are developing nowadays. Further results will be presented in the form of a PhD Thesis.