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[July 1996: JB added some wwweb links for the last dozen or two entries. If anyone wants to trace more, please do!]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [Version 5: Thanks to Piet-Hein Speel, Paul Doudna, Nick Youd, Jim Fulton, and especially to Dan Fass for COPIOUS new material. Changes: RICHENS/MASTERMAN/WILKS is now divided into: RICHENS 100 MINIMALS (he invented "semantic nets" in 1956), MASTERMAN'S SEMANTIC LATTICES, PREFERENCE SEMANTICS PRIMITIVES (Wilks), and FASS'S GENUS CLASSIFICATION. The RELATIONAL LEXICON HIERARCHY becomes EVENS/NUTTER LEXICAL RELATION HIERARCHY. New total= 178 concept-systems. FL, May 1, 1996] ===================================================================
Fritz Lehmann
GRANDAI Software, 1800 Lavaca, Austin, Texas
78701
and
Cycorp, 3500 W. Balcones Center, Dr., Austin, Texas
78759
[occasionally accessed email: fritz@rodin.wustl.edu]
November 1993
This is to be an informal catalogue of existing concept catalogues, taxonomies and hierarchies (including high level "ontologies") for possible use in knowledge representation, artificial intelligence, simulation, and database integration. Anybody can contribute (and be acknowledged). Each concept system is to be described (in a page or less) with some references and other information. I hope to be inclusive, with emphasis on potentially machine-readable/usable concept (and relation) hierarchies.
Some people think there is ONE concept system for the true structure of the world. Others like me think pragmatic concerns (subjective, mission-determined, or socially agreed-upon) may dictate different structures. Most "ontologies" have large areas of near-agreement on concepts like time, space, individuals, properties, etc. Technical thesauri deal with more specific subject areas like accounting, subfields of medicine, or plumbing fixtures. Philosophical concepts are necessary but controversial; some concepts like "check-stub" are quite uncontroversial.
The list is now intentionally a grab-bag. It ranges from universal to fairly problem-specific, informal to formal. Formalized or not, two aspects of every system are: its purely mathematical (order) structure, and the meanings of its components. Notation or language is incidental to both.
The page ordering, for now, is vaguely chronological. A concept in one system may differ entirely from a concept with the same name in another system. Please let me know of ANY OTHER concept-systems you know about.
Name of Concept-System Catalogued? Is there a known
machine version?
ARISTOTLE'S CATEGORIES (i+,p-,nr) no
LLULL'S ARS MAGNA (I,p+) no
LEIBNIZ'S ARS COMBINATORIA & CHAR. UNIVERSALIS (I,p+) no
LODWYCK'S COMMON WRITING (i+,p-,nd) no
DALGARNO'S ARS SIGNORUM (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
WILKINS' REAL CHARACTER & PHILOSOPHICAL LANGUAGE(I,p-) planned
LINNAEUS-TYPE BIOLOGICAL TAXONOMY (i+,p-,nr) ?
ANON. (FITZGERALD? c. 1830) UNIVERSAL CHARACTER (I,p-) planned?
CAVE BECK (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
KANT'S A PRIORI SYNTHETIC CATEGORIES (i+,p-,nr,nd) no
ROGET'S THESAURUS (REVISED VERSION ONLIUNE) (I,p-) yes (older Ed.)
PEIRCE'S CATEGORIES (1,2,3; 66 SIGNS, ETC.) (I,p-,nr) no
BOLZANO (i+,p-,nr,nd) no
MEINONG (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
BRADLEY (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
DEWEY DECIMAL, BLISS, UDC & LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (I,p-) yes
POLTI'S 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=Barger) no?
HUSSERL'S ONTOLOGY (i+,p-,nr,nd) no
PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA (I,p-,nd) yes (derived)
WHITEHEAD'S PROCESS THEORY (i+,p-,nd) no (Ontek?)
LIESNIEWSKI'S MEREOLOGY & SO-CALLED ONTOLOGY (i+,p-,nr,nd) no
PROPP'S FOLKTALE MORPHOLOGY ENCODING (i-,p-,nd) yes? (Dundes?)
OGDEN & RICHARDS' BASIC ENGLISH (I,p-,c=Fass,Thorson) no?
SEMANTOGRAPHY/BLISSYMBOLICS SYMBOLS (I,p-) ?
DUTTON SPEEDWORDS SYSTEM (I,p-,c=Harrison) no
RICHENS'S 100 "SEMANTIC NET" MINIMALS (i+,p-,nr,nd,c=Fass) no? (Wilks?)
CECCATO'S CORRELATION NET PRIMITIVES (i-,p-,nr,nd) survives?
MASTERMAN'S SEMANTIC LATTICES (i+,p-,nr,nd) no? (Wilks?)
LINCOS INTERPLANETARY LANGUAGE (I,p-,c=Godden) no?
R.M. MARTIN'S SEMIOTIC PRIMITIVES (i+,p-,nr,nd) no
COLON FACETED LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION (i+,p-,nd) in India?
THE SYNTOPICON (FOR ENCYC. BRIT. GT BOOKS) (I,p-,c=Salsman) ?
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS (I,p-) yes
DEEP CASE SYSTEMS (i+,p-,nd) some
LOGLAN/LOJBAN SEMANTIC PRIMITIVE WORD ROOTS (I,p-) yes
HALLIG & WARTBURG'S CONCEPT-SYSTEM/ORDER-SCHEME (i-,p-,nd) no?
INGARDEN'S ARISTOTLE REVISION (i-,p-,nd) no
LAFFAL'S CONCEPT DICTIONARY (I,p-) somewhere?
LEECH'S SEMANTICS (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=Fass) ?
SCHANK'S CONCEPTUAL DEPENDENCY THEORY (I,p-) yes
STITH THOMPSON FOLK MOTIFS (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=Barger) no
ACM COMPUTER SCIENCE CLASSIFICATION (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
SHUM "SPIRITUAL" NETWORKS (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
HRAF OUTLINE OF CULTURAL MATERIALS (ANTHROP.) (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes text
LEVI-STRAUSS ANTHROPOLOGICAL MODELS (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
PROPAEDIA OF ENCYLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA (I,p-,c=Van Roy) yes
WEBER RUSSELL'S CATEGORIES OF NOMINALS (i-,p-,nd,c=Fass) ?
PARKER-RHODES' INFERENTIAL SEMANTICS LATTICES (I,p-) no? (Wilks?)
WIERZBICKA'S LINGUA MENTALIS (i+,p-,nd) yes?
SCHEELE'S ORDNUNG DES WISSENS (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=ISKO) ?
PATENT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=ISKO) yes
NTIS/DOD/COSATI CLASSIFICATION SCHEME (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=ISKO) ?
UNESCO THESAURUS (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=ISKO) yes
BROAD SYSTEM OF ORDERING (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=ISKO) ?
RUSSIAN MISON "RUBRICATOR" CLASS. CODES (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=ISKO) ?
BHATTACHARYA'S CLASSAURUS (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
AUSTIN'S PRECIS CONCEPT ANALYSIS & INDEXING (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
PERREAULT'S SCHEMA OF RELATIONS (i+,p-,nr,nd) no?
KAMP'S DISCOURSE REPRESENTATION STRUCTURES (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
PREFERENCE SEMANTICS PRIMITIVES (I,p-,c=Wilks,Fass) ?
MARIO BUNGE'S PHYSICS-BASED ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
MILLER/JOHNSON-LAIRD PRIMITIVES (i+,p-,nr,nd,c=Fass) ?
HAYES'S NAIVE PHYSICS (i+,p-,nr,nd) no?
LEHNERT'S OBJECT PRIMITIVES (i+,p-,nd,c=Fass) yes?
SCHANK/CARBONELL SOCIAL/POLITICAL ACTS (i+,p-,nd,c=Fass) ?
MEL'CHUK'S EXPLANATORY-COMBINATORY DICTIONARY (i+,p-,nd) yes text
MeSH - MEDICAL SUBJECT HEADINGS THESAURUS (i-,p-,nd) yes
JOLLEY'S HOLOTHEME (I,p-) no
ZARRI'S RESEDA/NKRL ONTOLOGY (I,p-) yes
LENAT'S AM/EURISKO MATH CATEGORIES (I,p-) yes (where?)
SOWA'S CONCEPTUAL GRAPHS PRIMITIVES (I,p-) ?
BARWISE/PERRY/DEVLIN SITUATION SEMANTICS (I,p-) ?
SCHUBERTIAN ("ECO") SUBHIERARCHIES (I,p-) yes?
FICTION CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES (i+,p-,nr,nd,c=ISKO) no
WAHLIN'S T.I.M, MANUFACTURING FACETS (i+,p+,nd,c=ISKO) ?
CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU CLASSIFICATION UK (I,p-,c=ISKO) no
QUALITATIVE PHYSICS PRIMITIVES (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
SMITH-MULLIGAN-DEGEN ONTOLOGY (i+,p-,nr,nd) no
SIMONS' PART SYSTEM (i-,p-,nr,nd) no (Ontek?)
SMALLTALK DATA TYPE TREE (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes (Skuce?)
OBJECTIVE-C (NeXTSTEP) DATA TYPES (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
BOOCH/RATIONAL OBJECTS HIERARCHIES (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
WUESTER'S GENERAL THEORY OF TERMINOLOGY (i+,p+,nd,c=ISKO) ?
KAB GERMAN LIBRARY CLASSES (K.LEHMANN) (i-,p-,nd,c=ISKO) ?
GRAESSER'S MULTIPLE CONCEPT HIERARCHIES (i+,p-,nd) yes
DAHLGREN/McDOWELL NAIVE SEMANTICS (i+,p-,c=Youd) yes
LONGMAN DICTIONARY CODINGS (INCL. SLATOR) (i+,p-,nr,nd) yes
LONGMAN LEXICON (THESAURUS) (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes?
BURGER'S THE WORDTREE (I,p-) yes
FASS'S GENUS CLASSIFICATION (I,p-,nd,c=Fass) no?
PENMAN UPPER MODEL (I,p-,c=Hovy) yes
UNIFIED MEDICAL. LANG. SYS.(UMLS) METATHESAURUS (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
ICONCLASS ART SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION (i+,p-) no?
SPARCK JONES/BOGURAEV DEEP CASE LIST (I,p-) no
COOK ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
DIXON ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
VARIOUS WILLE-STYLE FORMAL CONCEPT LATTICES (i+,p-,nr,nd) yes
RUSSIAN MERONOMY/TAXONOMY (SHREIDER ET AL.) (i-,p-,nr,nd) no?
SOMERS'S CASE GRID (i+,p-,nd) J. Dick?
CHAFFIN'S RELATION HIERARCHY (i+,p-,nd) yes?
EDI (ELEC. DATA INTERCH.) BUSINESS COMM STANDARD(i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
LENAT/GUHA CYC PROJECT (MCC/CYCORP) (i+,p-,nd) yes
EPSTEIN AM-BASED GRAPH THEORY HIERARCHY (i-,p-,nd) yes?
MARTY'S SEMIOTIC LATTICES (ALGEBRA OF SIGNS) (i-,p-,nr,nd) no?
GEOGRAPHIC DATABASE CONCEPTS (i-,p-,nr,nd) various
MAPSEE GEOGRAPHIC MAP AXIOMS (MACKWORTH/REITER) (i+.p-,nd) yes (Selman)
IRDS DATABASE CATEGORIES (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
REA ACCOUNTING ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
HOBBS' COMMONSENSE ONTOLOGY (I,p-) ?
GORANSON SYMMETRIES (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
PANSYSTEMS PHILOSOPHICAL LOGIC (CHINESE) (i+,p-,nd) no?
GIUNCHILIA'S ITALIAN PREPOSITIONS (i-,p-,nr,nd) no
LILOG DUSSELDORF ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=Speel) yes
VELARDI'S SEMANTIC LEXICON FOR ITALIAN (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
ONTEK, INC.'S ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nd) yes?
LAKOFF'S CATEGORIES (i+,p-,nd) no?
HUHNS/STEPHENS RELATION FEATURES (i+,p-,nd) yes (Cyc)
WORDNET (I,p-,c=Consortium) yes
EDR CONCEPT DICTIONARY (JAPAN) (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
ONTOS CONCEPT HIERARCHY (Nirenburg) (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
DOUDNA QUANTIFIER RHOMBIDODECAHEDRON (I,p-,c=Doudna) no
SCRAMBLED ROGET (5th Ed.) (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
NIRENBURG'S DIONYSUS ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
SCHUBERT/HWANG EPISODIC LOGIC CATEGORIES (i+,p-,nd) yes
UNITRAN-LCS (DORR Et AL.) (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
EVENS/NUTTER LEXICAL RELATION HIERARCHY (i+,p-,nd) ?
PUSTEJOVSKY'S QUALIA/EVENTS (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=Fass) yes
PORTER'S U.TEXAS BOTANY ONTOLOGY (i+,p-,nd) yes
FULTON'S SEMANTIC UNIFICATION METAMODEL (i-,p-,c=Fulton) ?
RANDOM HOUSE WORD MENU CATEGORIES (i-,p-) ?
PANGLOSS ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
SNePS DICTIONARY OF CASE FRAMES(INCL.YUHAN)(I,p-,c=Chalupsky) yes
YALE'S ESPERANTO THESAURUS (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes?
ARPA/ROME PLANNING ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
CIMOSA BUSINESS ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE MODEL (I,p-) yes?
ICAM MANUFACTURING REFERENCE MODEL (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
IWI (GERMAN) MANUFACTURING REFERENCE MODEL (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
TOVE ENTERPRISE MODEL (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
ART & ARCHITECTURE THESAURUS (GETTY) (I,p-,nd,c=Soergel) yes
LIB. OF CONGRESS THESAURUS FOR GRAPHIC MATERIAL (i+,p-) yes
KIPFER'S "21st CENTURY ROGET" CONCEPT INDEX (I,p-,c=Ballard) ?
GUARINO CONCEPT/RELATION ONTOLOGY (i+,p-,nd) ?
SPATIAL DATA TRANSFER STANDARD (I,p-) text
SKUCE ONTOLOGY (I,p-,c=Sarris) yes
PETRIE ENTERPRISE ONTOLOGIES (i-,p-,nr,nd) exist?
TEPFENHART SITUATIONAL ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nd) ?
G.E. SEMANTIC HIERARCHY & LEXICON (RAU ET AL.) (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
PLINIUS CERAMICS ONTOLOGY (I,p-,c=Speel) yes
MARS' KELVIN MEASUREMENT HIERARCHY (i-,p-,nr,nd,c=Speel) yes?
RANDELL & COHN'S SPATIOTEMPORAL LATTICES (I,p-) yes
PDES/STEP PRODUCT DESCRIPTION STANDARDS (I,p-) yes
HARTLEY'S TIME AND SPACE WORLD (i+,p-,nd) yes
ONTOLINGUA-KIF FRAME ONTOLOGY (i+,p-,c=Gruber) yes LINK
GRUBER'S QUANTITIES/UNITS ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nd,c=Gruber) yes LINK
GENERIC BIBLIOGRAPHY CONCEPT SYSTEM (i-,p-,nd,c=Gruber) yes LINK
ECOBASE BIOCHEMICAL ONTOLOGY (IN ONTOLINGUA) (i+,p-,nd) yes LINK
BARGER'S CONCEPTUAL FRACTAL THICKET THEORY (i-,p-,nr,nd) ? LINK
DICK'S CASE-RELATION SYSTEM FOR LEGAL ANALYSIS (I,p-,c=Dick) no?
VALENTE LEGAL ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) ? LINK
Z39.50 SCIENTIFIC & TECH. ATTRIBUTE SET (STAS) (I,p-) yes LINK
HORN'S SUBJECT MATTER CATEGORIES (I,p-,c=Horn,nd) ?
ARNOPOULOS' SYSTEM UNIFICATION MODEL (SUM) (I,p-,c=ISKO) ? LINK
TENENBAUM/EIT MANUFACTURING ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) exists?
INTELL. TEXT PROCESSING INC. SEMANTIC LEXICON (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
TADS - TEXT ADVENTURE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes LINK
MICROSOFT DICTIONARY-BASED ONTOLOGY (HEIDORN) (i-,p-) yes
BAGGETT'S WORLDCLASS CLASSES FOR TADS (p+.nr) yes LINK
ALCOHOL & OTHER DRUG THESAURUS (I,p-,c=Soergel) yes
ORACLE "CONTEXT" CONCEPT TREE (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes
NEXTSTEP ENTERPRISE OBJECTS MODEL (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes LINK
FALCIDIENO MEDICAL ONTOLINGUA ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) yes?LINK
BONGALON ONTOLOGY (i-,p-,nr,nd) ?
ISO/IEC 11179 DATA ELEMENT STANDARD (I,p-) yes LINK
BASIC SEMANTIC REPOSITORY (FOR EDI REFORM) (I,p-,c=Steel) yes LINK
MIKROKOSMOS ONTOLOGY (i+,p-) yes LINK
CAMBRIDGE NEW LEARNERS DICT. ONTOLOGY (I,p-,c=Copestake) yes
MICRA FACTOTUM ONTOLOGY (ROGET/UMLS-BASED) (I,p-) yes LINK
SOWA'S DIMENSIONAL ONTOLOGY (I,p-,c=Sowa) no LINK
DOUDNA'S TOTO (THE ONE TRUE ONTOLOGY) (i-,p-) no
[Hundreds of special-area thesauri are listed in Int. Classification and Indexing Bibliography (ICIB) published by Indeks-Verlag, at the Int. Soc. for Knowledge Organization, Woogstr. 36a, D-60431 Frankfurt, Germany]
SUGGESTED CATALOGUE FORMAT: Brief description, Examples, Formalized?, Abstract hierarchy structure, Maximum depth, Necessary/sufficient?, Current authorities/enthusiasts, Machine-readable text?, Machine- usable structure?, Source, FTP/WWW site?, Implemented? References.
I won't release the catalogue itself until at least half the entries are
written up. Fritz Lehmann fritz@rodin.wustl.edu