Effective NL Paraphrasing of Ontologies on the Semantic Web

In this paper, we present an algorithm that provides natural language (NL) paraphrases for OWL Ontologies on the Semantic Web. Our goal is to ensure both fluency (readability) and accuracy of the output, in terms of preserving the meaning conveyed by its description logic formalism. The approach described is a generic domain-independent one, and is completely automated. We describe details about the algorithm and follow it up with a subjective evaluation (pilot study) of our approach using real world ontologies comparing it with current tools that provide similar functionality. 1 Motivation and Goals With the advent of OWL, and its subset OWL-DL, semantic web content is backed by a precisely-defined Description Logic (DL). This property means that the meaning of semantic web content will always be clear and potentially useful to an intelligent agent, or reasoner-equipped software application. However, concept definitions (OWL Classes) are specified in the language of logic, requiring humans to understand this logical language in order to decipher the meaning of concepts. For end users of semantic web enabled applications, this may pose a usability problem in many important circumstances, effectively creating a barrier for entry into the semantic web. To remove this barrier, we have designed and implemented a procedure for generating near-Natural Language (NL) paraphrases (in English) of OWL concept definitions that preserve the semantics of the DL description. These paraphrases can be presented to the user either in addition to or instead of the logical class definitions. By presenting the class names and English definitions, designers can keep users in an environment of entirely natural language-based interaction, while not losing the semantic rigor and precision that OWL provides. For a procedure such as ours to be widely useful, it has to be not only robust but also domain-independent, able to work with a large number of the concepts and ontologies available. A domain-independent solution is desirable because it can immediately make use of the numerous OWL