Relational property characteristics

Mathematical properties of data and object properties

Characteristics and constraints

Data and object properties carry relational characteristics: functionality, inverse pairs, transitivity, symmetry, asymmetry, reflexivity, (ir)reflexivity, disjointness, and cardinality bounds. These are not mere labels—they fix which inferences and query answers are valid. OWL and RDFS express many of them declaratively [AlHe2020]; description logics spell out the logical meaning of roles [BaMc2003].

Taxonomic and property hygiene for large ontologies is discussed in [BaAl2022].

DP/OP interplay

The canonical chapter relates characteristics of data properties and object properties to schema patterns (keys, inverse functional data properties, transitive OPs for partonomy, etc.).

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Rule preconditions should encode the same intended constraints when rules simulate property-like behaviour; avoid rules that contradict declared characteristics.

Source: taoke.de — Relational property characteristics.

References

  1. [AlHe2020] Dean Allemang, Jim Hendler, Fabien Gandon, Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist - Effective Modeling in RDFS and OWL, Third Edition, ACM Books series, Nbr. 33 , 2020, ISBN: 978-1-4503-7614-3
  2. [BaAl2022] Jeferson O. Batistaa, João Paulo A. Almeida, Eduardo Zambona, Giancarlo Guizzardi, Ontologically Correct Taxonomies by Construction, Data & Knowledge Engineering , 2022
  3. [BaMc2003] Franz Baader, Deborah L. McGuiness, Daniele Nardi, Peter F. Patel-Schneider (eds.), The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation and Applications, Cambridge University Press , 2003, ISBN: 978-0521781763, pp. 574