A Theory of Signs for Database Semantics

The goal of this paper is to build a bridge from a certain intuitive conception of natural language communication, called the SLIM theory of language, to a technical approach, called database semantics (cf. Hausser 1999/2001). The intuitive approach proceeds from the interfaces of a cognitive agent’s recognition and action, the levels of language and context, the nature of concepts, and the reconstruction of reference based on internal matching between the two levels, including an intuitive theory of signs. The technical software approach begins with a data structure suitable for the indexing and retrieval of content, an algorithm operating on the data structure, and a procedure for modeling language interpretation, inferencing, and production based on this algorithm. Both approaches have coexisted for years, illuminating each other in suggestive ways, but without a systematic transition from one to the other. When it comes to the details of handling individual words in language interpretation and production, however, the intuitive theory of signs must be reconciled with the structural details required by the technical approach. The solution presented in this paper reconstructs the language and context components of the intuitive approach by refining the data structure of database semantics. For this, the different sign types are integrated into the basic information units of proplets as the values of certain attributes. Furthermore, different language proplets and context proplets are distinguished, and stored in different areas of the database.