A Time and Situation Dependent Semantics for Ontological Property Classification

This paper proposes a new semantics that characterizes the time and/or situation dependencies of properties, together with the ontological notion of existential rigidity. For this purpose, we present order-sorted tempo-situational logic (OSTSL) with rigid/anti-rigid sorts and an existential predicate. In this logic, rigid/anti-rigid sorted terms enable the expressions for sortal properties, and temporal and situational operators suitably represent the ontological axioms of existential rigidity and time and/or situation dependencies. A specific semantics of OSTSL adheres to the temporal and situational behaviors of properties based on existential rigidity. As a result, the semantics guarantees that the ontological axioms of properties expressed by sorted tempo-situational formulas are logically valid. key words: formal ontology, semantic web, order-sorted logic