A comprehensive mathematical framework for bridging a gap between two approaches to creating a meaning‐understanding web

Abstract

PurposeSince, the middle of the 1990s, UNO has been funding a large‐scale project aimed at designing a family of natural language (NL) processing systems transforming the sentences in various NLs into the expressions of a new language‐intermediary called the Universal Networking Language (UNL) and vice versa. The purpose of the paper is to propose a constructive way of developing a semantic networking language (SNL) of a new generation and, as a consequence, to bridge a gap between UNL‐based studies and Semantic Web projects.Design/methodology/approachThe methodological basis of the paper is a new theory of designing semantic‐syntactic analyzers of NL texts elaborated by the author of the paper and called the theory of K‐representations (knowledge representations). One of its basic components is a mathematical model describing a system of ten partial operations on conceptual structures and determining a new class of formal languages called restricted standard knowledge languages (RSK‐languages).FindingsIt is shown that the expressive possibilities of RSK‐languages surpass the expressive possibilities of UNL from the standpoint of representing the meanings of discourses, compound goals, descriptions of sets, definitions of notions. It is proposed to use the definition of the class of RSK‐languages as a model of a SNL of a new generation in comparison with UNL.Practical implicationsIt is also proposed to use the definition of RSK‐languages for building semantic annotations of arbitrary web‐documents and web‐services.Originality/valueThe paper describes an original approach to representing conceptual structure of NL texts.