Representation of concepts as frames

Abstract

Concepts can be represented as frames, i. e., recursive attribute-value structures. Frames assign unique values to attributes. Concepts can be classified into four groups with respect to both relationality and referential uniqueness: sortal, individual, proper relational, and functional concepts. The paper defines frames as directed graphs with labeled nodes and arcs and it discusses the graph structures of frames for sortal and relational concepts. It aims at a classification of frame graphs that reWects the given concept classification. By giving a new definition of type signatures, the status of attributes in frames is clarified and the connection between functional concepts, their sortal uses, and their associated attributes is explained.