Ceryle Ontology
The Ceryle Ontology is the computer-based ontology that underpins the Ceryle application. This is a page describing some of the documents that make up the Ceryle Ontology.
Please note: this page is a preliminary work-in-progress.
The Ceryle Ontology wiki page should be considered the most current version until this page is ready.
Base URI Identifier
The Ceryle Ontology has a base URI identifier, a "namespace" that points to this directory:
http://purl.org/ceryle/psi/ceryle/All Linear Topic Map (LTM) and XML Topic Map (XTM) files containing the above base URI identifier are considered part of the Ceryle Ontology. In LTM files this is identifiable via the #BASEURI directive at the top of the file.
Components of the Ceryle Ontology
While the ontology may be delivered as separate ontology files, they all share the same namespace, i.e., they are really just subsets of one Ceryle Ontology. All Topics and Associations within the Ceryle "system" are considered part of the same ontology.
The ontology is organized into a core, a base, and optional components:
Core Ontology
The core Ceryle Ontology provides the elemental features necessary for the functioning of the Ceryle application itself. It is not a domain or common sense ontology and is not meant to describe the world. If there's a concept of an "upper" ontology rooted in a "Thing" Topic (concept), this provides a foundation for "Thing" to exist within.
- ceryle.ltm : the core Ceryle Ontology
- facets.ltm : provides faceted classification features
Base Ontology
The Ceryle Base Ontology is a traditional pyramid ontology rooted in a "Thing" Topic (concept), with everything being some KindOf Thing. Thing sits at the top of the upper ontology (the top of the pyramid), with the middle ontology fleshing out more details of the overall world. There is no "lower" ontology, as that's meant to be populated by subdomains considered beyond the scope of the Ceryle Ontology.
- minimal.ltm : the Ceryle Minimal Ontology, the minimal features necessary for graph visualization
- upper.ltm : the Ceryle Upper Ontology, the top of the hierarchy plus dozens of Topics
- middle.ltm : the Ceryle Middle Ontology, roughly 500 Topics that includes (by reference) the upper ontology
Optional Components
These might be considered components in a "lower" ontology, basically subdomains developed for various purposes.
- utility.ltm : A core set of Topics without any characteristics (names, occurrences, etc.)
- datatypes.ltm : Datatypes (derived from XML Schema Datatypes)
- cg_relations.ltm : Conceptual Graph Relation PSIs
- cg_map.ltm : Map between Ceryle Ontology and Conceptual Graph Relation PSIs
- dewey.ltm : Dewey DC prototype
- events.ltm : Events
- frbr.ltm : Hierarchical Catalog Records based on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)
- places.ltm : Places
- ccr.ltm : Cognitive Coherence Relations
- characters.ltm : Fiction and Non-fiction Characters
- wikibase.ltm : Wiki Base Ontology
- chicago.ltm : Parts of a Book
- z39.19.ltm : z39.19 Thesaurus
- units.ltm : Measurement Units - one file
- mu.ltm : Measurement Units - modular driver file
- mu_si.ltm : Measurement Units - Systeme International SI Module
- mu_o.ltm : Measurement Units - Other Module (non-SI contemporary units)
- mu_hist.ltm : Measurement Units - Historical Module
A non-Ceryle ontology:
- dcmi.ltm : Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Topics
Document Locations
The documents listed above are included as part of Ceryle distribution. They also have canonical online locations, as indicated by the base URI. The above list includes links to the latest version of each file. There is also a $Date$ tag within each file which indicates the last modified date.
You're reading the 'index.html' file found in the directory indicated by the Ceryle Ontology base URI. This document will in the future provide documentation on all of the Topics in the Ceryle Ontology.