Documentation
Vocabulary
E-Mail Comments to: opencyc-doc@cyc.com
Last
Update: 3/30/02
Copyright© 1996-2002. All rights reserved. See Terms of Usage.
Return to Documentation Contents
Return to Vocabulary Contents
Documentation predicates annotate Cyc constants for the
benefit of users examining the Cyc KB. In general, assertions
involving documentation predicates have no bearing on Cyc's
inference -- they are simply for people to read and consult.
#$comment comment
A #$DocumentationPredicate (q.v.) that is used to
relate a #$CycLIndexedTerm (usually a #$CycLConstant) to a
#$SubLString containing an English explanation of the term's
meaning and use, as an aid to humans (whether #$Cyclists or
not) browsing the Cyc Knowledge Base. (#$comment TERM STRING)
means that STRING is a piece of Cyc documentation that
explains the meaning and use of TERM. For example, the
passage you are reading now is the comment for the CycL
constant `#$comment'. See also #$cyclistNotes.
guid: bd588109-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of: #$BinaryPredicate
#$OpenCycDefinitionalPredicate
#$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate #$DefaultMonotonicPredicate
#$DefinitionalPredicate
#$sharedNotes shared notes
A predicate-denoting constant that is an instance
#$DocumentationPredicate. It is sometimes useful to include
the same piece of text in the documentation of two or more
constants. Rather than actually duplicating text in the
Knowledge Base, one can create a special constant -- an
instance of #$SharedNote (q.v.)
-- whose sole purpose is to hold this shared documentation
in the form of its own #$comment. (#$sharedNotes CONST
SHARED-NOTE) means that SHARED-NOTE is a constant that is an
instance of #$SharedNote whose #$comment is shared
documentation about CONST. Since #$SharedNotes are
usually shared, it is quite likely that other constants
besides CONST will have SHARED-NOTE as their #$sharedNotes as well.
guid: c0fb9be2-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of: #$OpenCycDefinitionalPredicate
#$BinaryPredicate #$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate
#$salientAssertions salient assertions
(#$salientAssertions
TERM ASSERTION) means that ASSERTION has been deemed one of
the assertions most useful to examine when one is trying to
figure out the intended meaning of TERM. Thus, ASSERTION
will normally contain TERM, and should be something that has
been asserted on its own in the KB as well. Statements using
#$salientAssertions
are primarily intended for human consumption, and are not
normally used by the Cyc inference engine.
guid: bd5db814-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
#$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate #$BinaryPredicate
#$cyclistNotes cyclist notes
A #$DocumentationPredicate (q.v.) that is used to
relate a #$CycLIndexedTerm (usually a #$CycLConstant) to a
#$SubLString containing information regarding the term that
is potentially useful to #$HumanCyclists, but is of a more
technical or speculative nature than would be suitable for a
standard comment (see #$comment). For example,
a cyclist-note might contain practical advice for
ontological engineers and knowledge enterers about the use
of a term, express a particular cyclist's concerns about the
term, or mention that the term presently lacks code support.
guid: bd588108-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
#$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate #$BinaryPredicate
#$DefinitionalPredicate
#$englishGloss english gloss
To be used to refer to the manual english rendering
of an assertion or perhaps a constant but see also
#$denotation. #$englishGloss
assertions may be used to enhance or supplement automatic nl
generation results, serve as a training data set for a
program which learns to generate NL from CycL, etc.. This
predicate should not be used for commentary. For commentary
see #$comment or #$cyclistNotes.
guid: bd5c7466-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
#$FunctionalSlot
#$MetaKnowledgePredicate
#$myCreator my creator
(#$myCreator X Y)
means that Y is the constant representing the person who
introduced the constant X into the Cyc vocabulary. In
general, the editing interfaces to the Cyc KB only allow the
KB to be modified when an instance of #$Cyclist is
designated as the author of the changes. See also #$sourceOfTerm-Person.
guid: bd58810b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
#$DefaultMonotonicPredicate
#$BookkeepingPredicate
#$MetaKnowledgePredicate
#$FunctionalSlot
#$myCreationTime my
creation time
(#$myCreationTime
CONSTANT TIME) means that the #$CycLConstant CONSTANT was
created at TIME, an instance of #$CycUniversalDate. The
format of TIME is YYYYMMDD; that is, the first four digits
give the year in which the constant was created, the next
two digits give the month in which it was created, and the
final two digits give the day of the month on which it was
created. For example, 19910309 is March 9, 1991.
guid: bd588107-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
#$FunctionalSlot
#$BookkeepingPredicate
#$MetaKnowledgePredicate
#$futureAssertion future assertion
(#$futureAssertion
ARG1 TEXT PSEUDO_CYCL) is used to associate a Cyc thing
(ARG1) with some proposition which should be formalized in
CycL and added to the kb when the required representational
vocabulary is available. TEXT is a #$SubLString expressing
the proposition in standard English, as clearly as possible.
PSEUDO_CYCL is a pseudo-CycL expression of the proposition,
in CycL syntax and using strings to denote units which may
not exist (or were not known to the author) at the time of
entry. The PSEUDO_CYCL will often be left NIL.
guid: bd588498-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of: #$TernaryPredicate
#$oldConstantName old
constant name
This bookkeeping predicate relates a CycL constant
to a former name of that constant. More accurately, (#$oldConstantName
CONSTANT STRING) means that the underlying data structure
currently associated with the CycL expression CONSTANT was
formerly associated instead with the SubL string STRING. If
CONSTANT has undergone multiple renames , STRING will
normally be its most recent former name . While #$oldConstantName
sentences can be asserted and edited by hand, they are
asserted automatically when a Rename is done in the
Knowledge Base.
guid: bd6422c8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of: #$BinaryPredicate #$MetaKnowledgePredicate
#$BookkeepingPredicate
#$SharedNote shared note
A quoted-collection that is a subcollection of
#$DocumentationConstant (see #$quotedCollection). Shared
notes are used for documentation in which two or more CycL
constants are discussed together, where doing this is deemed
more efficient than including the discussion in the
constants' #$comments
or #$cyclistNotes. To
be precise: Each instance of #$SharedNote is a
CycL constant that denotes some text (see #$TextString)
in which two or more other CycL constants are discussed.
This text -- which is given as the #$comment on the #$SharedNote -- is
what one intuitively thinks of as the actual note in
question. Thus, while the #$comment on a given
constant usually _describes_ the constant's denotation, the
#$comment on a #$SharedNote
literally _is_ the Note's denotation. See also #$sharedNotes.
guid: c0fb9bb4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
#$ObjectType
direct specialization of:
#$TextString
#$PublicConstant public constant
The collection of CycL constants that are included
in the public release of Cyc. Instances of #$PublicConstant
include all constants that denote things in the so-called
Upper Cyc Ontology, as well as various constants that denote
things in the Mid and Lower Cyc Ontologies. For more
information, see the Cycorp Proprietary Documentation.
guid: bd7abd90-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
direct specialization of:
direct generalization of: #$CoreConstant
#$ProprietaryConstant proprietary constant
Instances of #$ProprietaryConstant
and any assertions involving them will be omitted from
non-proprietary KBs and will not displayed in
non-proprietary applications. Typically, one would create
specs of #$ProprietaryConstant
to correspond to the owner of the proprietary information,
e.g. AcmeConstant for constants proprietary to Acme corporation.
guid: c10ada4d-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
direct instance of:
#$Collection
direct specialization of:
#$Thing
Copyright© 1996-2002. All rights reserved. See Terms of Usage.