A theoretical investigation about partwhole semantic relations and its application in Knowledge Organization Systems

Authors

  • Maurício Barcellos Almeida Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
  • Jeanne Louize Emygdio

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5433/1981-8920.2019v24n2p31

Keywords:

Ontologies, Semantic Relationships, Part-whole Relationships

Abstract

Introduction: Semantic relationships are crucial devices for Knowledge Representation, a field of research that have received more and more attention, mainly with the advent of Semantic Web. Information Science has a long history of studying and using semantic relationships in the several contexts in which Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) are designed and developed. However, there are a few detailed research about the semantic relationship of whole-part, also known as partitive relationship. Objective: This article aims to present a well-grounded description about the partitive relationship, from a interdisciplinary approach including its linguistic and philosophical roots. Methodology: To reach our goals, we describe and characterize two main forms through partitive relations are posed – the meronym, non-formal and linguistic in nature; the mereology, formal and logical in nature – distinguishing them by the property of transitivity. Results: From such distinction, we suggest a pragmatic criterion to decide which approach of partitive relations is suitable to build ontologies and thesauri. Conclusions: We conclude that, formal relationships are, as a matter of fact, more restrict relations, and one can even say that they are included in no-formal relationships. However, the use of formal relations in ontologies requires attention to questions sometimes neglected by information scientists.

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Author Biographies

Maurício Barcellos Almeida, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

Doutor em Ciência da Informação pela Escola de Ciência da Informação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Professor do Programa de Pós Graduação em Gestão & Organização do Conhecimento da Escola de Ciência da Informação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG).

Jeanne Louize Emygdio

Doutoranda em Ciência da Informação pela Escola de Ciência da Informação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG).

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Published

2019-11-30

How to Cite

Almeida, M. B., & Emygdio, J. L. (2019). A theoretical investigation about partwhole semantic relations and its application in Knowledge Organization Systems. Informação & Informação, 24(2), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.5433/1981-8920.2019v24n2p31

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Artigos