UNDERSTANDING PREPOSITIONS THROUGH COGNITIVE GRAMMAR. A CASE OF IN

Poly - semantic nature of prepositions has been discussed in linguistic literature and confirmed by language data. In the majority of research within cognitive linguistics prepositions have been approached as predicates organising entities in space, with less attention paid to the search for a meaning schema sanctioning the numerous uses. Cognitive Grammar analytic tools allow for the analysis which results in discovering one meaning schema sanctioning the uses of the English preposition in. The present analysis is based on the assumption that the meaning schema of in profiles a relation of conceptual enclosure between two symbolic structures, one of which conceptually fits in the other. Accordingly, I argue that the speaker employs in to structure a real scene not because one element of the scene can physically enclose the other one, but due to conceptual ‘fitting in’ holding between the predication ‘preceding’ the preposition and the one that ‘follows’. In formal terms, the usage of in is conditioned and sanctioned by compatibility of active zones in the predications used to form the complex language expression involved. Peculiarities of physical organization may be ignored in such conceptualisation, though the speaker can choose to encode all peculiarities of physical organisation of real world objects employing different linguistic devices

The fundamental cycle of concept construction underlying various theoretical frameworks

In this paper, the development of mathematical concepts over time is considered. Particular reference is given to the shifting of attention from step-by-step procedures that are performed in time, to symbolism that can be manipulated as mental entities on paper and in the mind. The development is analysed using different theoretical perspectives, including the SOLO model and various theories of concept construction to reveal a fundamental cycle underlying the building of concepts that features widely in different ways of thinking that occurs throughout mathematical learning

Learning from AI : new trends in database technology

Recently some researchers in the areas of database data modelling and knowledge representations in artificial intelligence have recognized that they share many common goals. In this survey paper we show the relationship between database and artificial intelligence research. We show that there has been a tendency for data models to incorporate more modelling techniques developed for knowledge representations in artificial intelligence as the desire to incorporate more application oriented semantics, user friendliness, and flexibility has increased. Increasing the semantics of the representation is the key to capturing the "reality" of the database environment, increasing user friendliness, and facilitating the support of multiple, possibly conflicting, user views of the information contained in a database

Compensation methods to support generic graph editing: A case study in automated verification of schema requirements for an advanced transaction model

Compensation plays an important role in advanced transaction models, cooperative work, and workflow systems. However, compensation operations are often simply written as a^−1 in transaction model literature. This notation ignores any operation parameters, results, and side effects. A schema designer intending to use an advanced transaction model is expected (required) to write correct method code. However, in the days of cut-and-paste, this is much easier said than done. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using an off-the-shelf theorem prover (also called a proof assistant) to perform automated verification of compensation requirements for an OODB schema. We report on the results of a case study in verification for a particular advanced transaction model that supports cooperative applications. The case study is based on an OODB schema that provides generic graph editing functionality for the creation, insertion, and manipulation of nodes and links

Coping with lists in the ifcOWL ontology

Over the past few years, several suggestions have been made of how to convert an EXPRESS schema into an OWL ontology. The conversion from EXPRESS to OWL is of particular use to architectural design and construction industry, because one of the key data models in architectural design and construction industry, namely the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is represented using the EXPRESS information modelling language. In each of these conversion options, the way in which lists are converted (e.g. lists of coordinates, lists of spaces in a floor) is key to the structure and eventual strength of the resulting ontology. In this article, we outline and discuss the main decisions that can be made in converting LIST concepts in EXPRESS to equivalent OWL expressions. This allows one to identify which conversion option is appropriate to support proper and efficient information reuse in the domain of architecture and construction

Existence dependency: conceptual modelling by contract.

In Object Orientation, the Generalisation/Specialisation hierarchy and the Whole/Part relationship are prevalent classification schemes for object types. This paper presents a new classification scheme for object types, called 'existence dependency'. Existence dependency captures some of the interesting semantics that are usually associated with the concept of aggregation (Part of relation). In fact, the semantics of existence dependency are hidden in the semantics of the Entity Relationship model, but have never been explicitly named. We will demonstrate how the explicit classification of object types according to the existence dependency relation allows for formal and automatic consistency between static and dynamic aspects of object types that goes far beyond mere syntactical consistency.Classification; Dependency; Model;