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An Ontology for Classifying the Semantics of Relationships in Database Design

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Natural Language Processing and Information Systems (NLDB 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1959))

Abstract

Relationships are an integral part of conceptual database design because they represent associations between entities from the real world. With the proliferation of both traditional, corporate, and now, web-based, databases representing similar entities, comparison of relationships across these databases is increasingly important. The ability to compare and resolve similarities in relationships in an automated manner is critical for merging diverse database designs, thus facilitating their effective use and reuse. The key to automating such comparisons is the capture and classification of the semantics of the relationship verb phrases. This research presents a multi-layered ontology for classifying verb phrases to capture their semantics. The fundamental layer captures the most elementary relationships between entities. The next, generic layer combines or arranges fundamental relationships to represent generic, real- world relationships. Finally, the contextual layer instantiates the generic relationships with specific verb phrases in different situations. Empirical testing of the ontology illustrates its effectiveness.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Company Energy Marketing, 900 Ashford Parkway, 30338, Atlanta, Georgia

    Harald Ullrich

  2. Department of Computers and Information Systems, Georgia State University, Box 4015, 30302, Atlanta, Georgia

    Sandeep Purao & Veda C. Storey

  3. Institutt for Informasjonvitenskap, Agder University College, Tordenskjoldsgate 65, 404, Kristiansand, Norway

    Sandeep Purao

Authors
  1. Harald Ullrich
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  2. Sandeep Purao
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  3. Veda C. Storey
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. PRiSM Laboratory, University of Versailles, 45 av.des Etats-Unis, 78035, Paris, France

    Mokrane Bouzeghoub  & Zoubida Kedad  & 

  2. CNAM, CEDRIC Laboratory, 292 rue Saint-Martin, 75003, Paris

    Elisabeth Métais

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ullrich, H., Purao, S., Storey, V.C. (2001). An Ontology for Classifying the Semantics of Relationships in Database Design. In: Bouzeghoub, M., Kedad, Z., Métais, E. (eds) Natural Language Processing and Information Systems. NLDB 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1959. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45399-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45399-7_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41943-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45399-4

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