Shallow and Deep Semantic Similarity among Schema Elements

Semantic similarity between schema elements is greatly influenced by the context in which the elements are defined and compared. This paper emphasizes on the role of context in establishing semantic similarity between schema elements resulting two different forms of semantic similarity, i.e., shallow similarity and deep similarity. Shallow similarity is based on the inherent meanings of the elements only, where as deep similarity is a context based semantic similarity. The proper description of semantic similarity is helpful in identifying the corresponding schema elements for the purpose of schema integration. A new taxonomy of semantic similarity presented in this paper also helps to identify the exact nature of correspondence among schema elements, which helps the integrator to determine exact treatment for the corresponding schema elements in schema integration.