## Domain Examples Help

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The Domain Examples tool provides a set of examples of uses of predicates which are likely to be extremely useful for representing knowledge in the topic under discussion.

You are strongly encouraged to familiarize yourself with the examples provided by this tool as they are most likely to be the predicates you will want to use.

The tool provides three powerful means of exploiting the examples :

1. Sorting based on several different sort methods
2. Filtering based on applicability to a concept
3. Suggesting sentence variations

Each will now be described in more detail.

### Sort Methods

The examples can be sorted using several different methods, each of which is more or less appropriate based on how you want to look for a particular example.

When a sort method results in sections of predicates, an Index to all the sections is available and is presented at the end of the page.

The links

> [Top] [Start] [End] [Index]

allow you to jump about within the page to the top, the start of the first example, the end of the last example, and the section index, respectively.

Each of the sort methods is now described in more detail.

topical utility
  This method sorts the examples based on the expected utility of their predicates with respect to the topic under discussion.

  In other words, predicates that are used more in microtheories relevant to this topic of discussion will have their examples listed earlier. This is the default sort method.

general utility
  This method sorts the examples based on the number of actual uses of their predicates in the entire Cyc KB, not just the topic under discussion.

  In other words, predicates that are used more throughout the Cyc KB will have their examples listed earlier.

specificity
  This method sorts the examples based on the specificity of the most restrictive argument constraint on their predicate. If a filter term is given, the sort is more precisely based on the most specific constraint that admits the filter term. The categories presented represent the collections that constitute the relevant constraints.

  In other words, predicates which more specifically apply to the given search term will have their examples listed earlier. This is the best sort method to use when a search term is given.

topical relevance
  This method sorts the examples based on how specific the definition of the predicate is to the topic of discussion. The categories presented represent the microtheories in which the predicates are defined, and are sorted from most specific (nearest to the topic of discussion) to most general.

  In other words, predicates which are defined to be more specific to the topic will have their examples listed earlier.

similarity
  This method sorts the examples based on the similarity of their predicates. The categories presented represent more general predicates which are implied by all the predicates in the category.

  In other words, predicates which share a common generalization will be grouped together. This method is good for seeing families of related examples grouped together.

alphabetically
  This method simply sorts all the examples alphabetically based on their NL translation.

### Applicability Filtering

The most powerful way to exploit the domain examples is to select the radio button for

> Show examples applicable to

and enter a concept for which you'd like to find relevant applicable examples. The examples will then be narrowed down to just those examples involving predicates that could be used on the given concept. This works extremely well in connection with the "specificity" sort method.

For this reason, it is often useful to start several Domain Examples interactions that have their applicability filtered down to different terms.

### Sentence Variations

If an example has a [Variations] link provided, there are several alternate forms of the example which can be presented for possible use in cloning. These all use the same predicate as the given example, but provide several varieties of quantification.

Since the variations provided all show different possible quantification options, they are most useful as starting points for cloning rather than directly asserting.

Note that the Sentence Variations tool is also accessible from the Assertion Clarifier page, whenever there are variations to present.

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