An Ontology Formalization of Relation Type Hierarchy in Conceptual Structure Theory

This paper presents an enhancement to ontology formalization, combining previous work in Conceptual Structure Theory and Order-Sorted Logic. In particular, the relation type hierarchy of the former theory is a subset of the predicate hierarchy of the latter. Most existing ontology formalisms place greater importance on concept types, but this paper focuses more on relation types, which are in essence predicates on concept types. New notions are introduced and new properties identified with the aim of completing missing arguments in relation types. The end result is a new ontology, that we call the closure of the original ontology, on which automated inference could be more easily produced (e.g., a query-answering system for legal knowledge).