Ontological terminology work

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Ontologicalterminology work

• EAFT Nordterm workshop Terminology, Concept
  Modelling and Ontology - Which approach for which
  problem?
• Katri Seppälä,
• The Finnish Terminology Centre TSK /
• FinnONTO project, Helsinki University of
  Technology

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Ontological terminology work

• Contents
• FinnONTO project
• from thesauri to ontologies
• ontological features in terminology work
• Core concepts
• semantic web extension of WWW which uses
  ontology based content description of web
  material
• ontology description of concepts of a certain
  domain in computer readable format

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FinnONTO project

• project coordinator Professor Eero Hyvönen,
  Helsinki University of Technology, Media
  Technology / University of Helsinki, Department
  of Computer Science
• Semantic Computing research group 20 persons
• IT experts
• terminologists, information specialists
• participants from several sectors museum,
  library, education, health care, land survey etc.
  
• financiers Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for
  Technology and Innovation) and participants
• 1. phase 1.9.2003-31.8.2004, 2. phase
  1.9.2004-31.8.2005, 3. phase 1.9.2005-31.8.2006
  (31.5.2007)

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Goals

• to demonstrate the usability of ontologies
• for example MuseumFinland (MuseoSuomi), Finnish
  General Upper Ontology (YSO)
• to provide central ontologies for free public use
  in order to maximize their use and to avoid
  multiple work
• to create a national ontology library for
  decentralised development, managament and use of
  ontologies
• easy access (search/copy/add/change)
• version management, communication on changes
• to suggest a model for organizing ontology work
• co-ordination of general ontology work National
  Library of Finland
• responsibility for extending the General Upper
  Ontology with domain ontologies domain experts

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From thesauri to ontologies

• a widely used thesaurus is a good starting point
  for an ontology, but many changes must still be
  made
• every concept must have its exact own place in
  the hierarchy and an URI (Uniform Resource
  Identifier) which identifies the name and the
  place of the concept
• an upper structure must be added in order to
  integrate the concepts into one system which
  computers can use in information processing
• preliminary upper structure in Finnish General
  Upper Ontology period, physical object,
  phenomenon, immaterial output, system, property,
  place, event, action

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From thesauri to ontologies

• action concepts have a central role in an
  ontology as they link different types of concepts
  to each other, but the amount of associative
  relations has to be increased in order to build
  these links
• for example action agent instrument
  patient place time result
• ontological relations have no room for
  interpretation
• generic relation (broader term narrower term)
• partitive relations have to be separated from
  generic relations
• generic group concepts (dimensions) have to be
  added
• individuals have to be separated from classes
• associative relation (related term)
• type of associative relation might be needed

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From thesauri to ontologies

• different means to describe several viewpoints
  simultaneously are allowed
• several generic superordinate concepts, for
  example exposure meter photographic equipment
  and meter
• roles, for example
• human occupation, member of a family
• material source of energy, building material
• different kind of associative relations, for
  example
• instrument used in action result of action

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From thesauri to ontologies

• ontological features make it possible to
• describe the content of web material for
  computers more precisely than before
• for example deal with polysemy/homonymy
• improve description methods, for example
• by eliminating unnecessary relations
• by unifying descriptions (concepts belonging to a
  certain upper class typically have certain
  relations)
• develop intelligent web services which use
  ontology based description
• use information on concept relations to delimit
  search results
• joint use of information which is described with
  the help of different systems

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From thesauri to ontologies - diagrams
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From thesauri to ontologies generic/partitive
relations
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From thesauri to ontologies group concepts
(dimensions)
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From thesauri to ontologies use of associative
relations
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From thesauri to ontologies
TERMINOLOGY THESAURUS ONTOLOGY
content one domain or part of a domain domain or combination of domains domain or combination of domains
designations often recommendations and some synonyms in one or more languages recommendations in several languages when needed recommendations and probably synonyms in several languages when needed
concept descriptions definitions, notes and concept diagrams concept relations with the help of three relation types concept relations and characteristics comprehensively and exactly specified
format markup languages can be used (for example XML) markup languages can be used (for example XML) ontology languages are used (for example RDFS, OWL)
results for human readers for human readers for computers
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Ontological features in terminology work

• products of systematic terminology work offer an
  accurate basis for ontologies
• information on concept relations can be picked up
  from definitions and enriched with the
  information found in explanatory notes
• this requires a system which allows the tagging
  of concept relations, but doesnt necessarily
  involve any extra work if the concepts are linked
  anyhow, for example, for electronic publication
• if there is a need to combine material from
  different vocabularies, the relations between
  concepts from different sources have to be tagged
  separately
• XML based information can be converted into RDFS
  or OWL for ontological use

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Ontological features in terminology work
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More information

• FinnONTO project http//www.seco.tkk.fi/projects/
  finnonto/
• MuseumFinland http//www.museosuomi.fi/
• methods Sanastokeskus TSK, http//www.tsk.fi/