## Documentation Vocabulary

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Last Update: 4/5/02
Copyright© 1996-2002. All rights reserved. See Terms of Usage.

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Documentation predicates annotate Cyc constants for the benefit of users examining the Cyc KB. In general, assertions involving documentation predicates have no bearing on Cyc's inference -- they are simply for people to read and consult.

#$comment comment (distributing meta knowledge predicate)

> A #$DocumentationPredicate (q.v.) that is used to relate a #$CycLIndexedTerm (usually a #$CycLConstant) to a #$SubLString containing an English explanation of the term's meaning and use, as an aid to humans (whether #$Cyclists or not) browsing the Cyc Knowledge Base. (#$comment TERM STRING) means that STRING is a piece of Cyc documentation that explains the meaning and use of TERM. For example, the passage you are reading now is the comment for the CycL constant `#$comment'. See also #$cyclistNotes.
> guid: bd588109-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$OpenCycDefinitionalPredicate #$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate #$DefaultMonotonicPredicate #$BinaryPredicate #$DefinitionalPredicate

#$sharedNotes shared notes

> A predicate-denoting constant that is an instance #$DocumentationPredicate. It is sometimes useful to include the same piece of text in the documentation of two or more constants. Rather than actually duplicating text in the Knowledge Base, one can create a special constant -- an instance of #$SharedNote (q.v.) -- whose sole purpose is to hold this shared documentation in the form of its own #$comment. (#$sharedNotes CONST SHARED-NOTE) means that SHARED-NOTE is a constant that is an instance of #$SharedNote whose #$comment is shared documentation about CONST. Since #$SharedNotes are usually shared, it is quite likely that other constants besides CONST will have SHARED-NOTE as their #$sharedNotes as well.
> guid: c0fb9be2-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$OpenCycDefinitionalPredicate #$BinaryPredicate #$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate

#$salientAssertions salient assertions

> (#$salientAssertions TERM ASSERTION) means that ASSERTION has been deemed one of the assertions most useful to examine when one is trying to figure out the intended meaning of TERM. Thus, ASSERTION will normally contain TERM, and should be something that has been asserted on its own in the KB as well. Statements using #$salientAssertions are primarily intended for human consumption, and are not normally used by the Cyc inference engine.
> guid: bd5db814-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate #$BinaryPredicate

#$cyclistNotes cyclist notes

> A #$DocumentationPredicate (q.v.) that is used to relate a #$CycLIndexedTerm (usually a #$CycLConstant) to a #$SubLString containing information regarding the term that is potentially useful to #$HumanCyclists, but is of a more technical or speculative nature than would be suitable for a standard comment (see #$comment). For example, a cyclist-note might contain practical advice for ontological engineers and knowledge enterers about the use of a term, express a particular cyclist's concerns about the term, or mention that the term presently lacks code support.
> guid: bd588108-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$DistributingMetaKnowledgePredicate #$BinaryPredicate #$DefinitionalPredicate

#$englishGloss english gloss **COMMENT NOT REVIEWED** **GAFs NOT REVIEWED**

> To be used to refer to the manual english rendering of an assertion or perhaps a constant but see also #$denotation. #$englishGloss assertions may be used to enhance or supplement automatic nl generation results, serve as a training data set for a program which learns to generate NL from CycL, etc.. This predicate should not be used for commentary. For commentary see #$comment or #$cyclistNotes.
> guid: bd5c7466-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$FunctionalSlot #$MetaKnowledgePredicate

#$myCreator my creator **COMMENT NOT REVIEWED** **GAFs NOT REVIEWED**

> (#$myCreator X Y) means that Y is the constant representing the person who introduced the constant X into the Cyc vocabulary. In general, the editing interfaces to the Cyc KB only allow the KB to be modified when an instance of #$Cyclist is designated as the author of the changes. See also #$sourceOfTerm-Person.
> guid: bd58810b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$DefaultMonotonicPredicate #$BookkeepingPredicate #$MetaKnowledgePredicate #$FunctionalSlot

#$myCreationTime my creation time

> (#$myCreationTime CONSTANT TIME) means that the #$CycLConstant CONSTANT was created at TIME, an instance of #$CycUniversalDate. The format of TIME is YYYYMMDD; that is, the first four digits give the year in which the constant was created, the next two digits give the month in which it was created, and the final two digits give the day of the month on which it was created. For example, 19910309 is March 9, 1991.
> guid: bd588107-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$FunctionalSlot #$BookkeepingPredicate #$MetaKnowledgePredicate

#$futureAssertion future assertion **COMMENT NOT REVIEWED** **GAFs NOT REVIEWED**

> (#$futureAssertion ARG1 TEXT PSEUDO_CYCL) is used to associate a Cyc thing (ARG1) with some proposition which should be formalized in CycL and added to the kb when the required representational vocabulary is available. TEXT is a #$SubLString expressing the proposition in standard English, as clearly as possible. PSEUDO_CYCL is a pseudo-CycL expression of the proposition, in CycL syntax and using strings to denote units which may not exist (or were not known to the author) at the time of entry. The PSEUDO_CYCL will often be left NIL.
> guid: bd588498-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$TernaryPredicate

#$oldConstantName old constant name

> This bookkeeping predicate relates a CycL constant to a former name of that constant. More accurately, (#$oldConstantName CONSTANT STRING) means that the underlying data structure currently associated with the CycL expression CONSTANT was formerly associated instead with the SubL string STRING. If CONSTANT has undergone multiple renames , STRING will normally be its most recent former name . While #$oldConstantName sentences can be asserted and edited by hand, they are asserted automatically when a Rename is done in the Knowledge Base.
> guid: bd6422c8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$BinaryPredicate #$MetaKnowledgePredicate #$BookkeepingPredicate

#$SharedNote shared note

> A quoted-collection that is a subcollection of #$DocumentationConstant (see #$quotedCollection). Shared notes are used for documentation in which two or more CycL constants are discussed together, where doing this is deemed more efficient than including the discussion in the constants' #$comments or #$cyclistNotes. To be precise: Each instance of #$SharedNote is a CycL constant that denotes some text (see #$TextString) in which two or more other CycL constants are discussed. This text -- which is given as the #$comment on the #$SharedNote -- is what one intuitively thinks of as the actual note in question. Thus, while the #$comment on a given constant usually _describes_ the constant's denotation, the #$comment on a #$SharedNote literally _is_ the Note's denotation. See also #$sharedNotes.
> guid: c0fb9bb4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$ObjectType
> direct specialization of: #$TextString

#$PublicConstant public constant **COMMENT NOT REVIEWED** **GAFs NOT REVIEWED**

> The collection of CycL constants that are included in the public release of Cyc. Instances of #$PublicConstant include all constants that denote things in the so-called Upper Cyc Ontology, as well as various constants that denote things in the Mid and Lower Cyc Ontologies. For more information, see the Cycorp Proprietary Documentation.
> guid: bd7abd90-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of:
> direct specialization of:
> direct generalization of: #$CoreConstant

#$ProprietaryConstant proprietary constant **COMMENT NOT REVIEWED** **GAFs NOT REVIEWED**

> Instances of #$ProprietaryConstant and any assertions involving them will be omitted from non-proprietary KBs and will not displayed in non-proprietary applications. Typically, one would create specs of #$ProprietaryConstant to correspond to the owner of the proprietary information, e.g. AcmeConstant for constants proprietary to Acme corporation.
> guid: c10ada4d-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
> direct instance of: #$Collection
> direct specialization of: #$Thing

Copyright© 1996-2002. All rights reserved. See Terms of Usage.