I an ARABIC SEMANTIC WEB MODEL a Thesis Submitted to Kent State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the De
AN ARABIC SEMANTIC WEB MODEL
A thesis submitted
to Kent State University in
partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Science
by
Khalid Ayed B Alharthi
August 2013
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Thesis written by
by
Khalid Ayed B Alharthi
B.S., King Khalid University, 2008
M.S., Kent State University, 2013
Approved by
Austin Melton ,Chair, Thesis Committee
Cheng-Chang Lu , Members, Thesis Committee
Angela Guercio
Farid Fouad
Accepted by
Javed Khan , Chair, Department of Computer Science
Raymond Craig , Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES……….………………………………………………………....…viii
LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………..……..…x
DEDICATION……………………..………………………………………….…...... …xiii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…..…………………..…………...………………....………xiv
CHAPTER 1 SEMANTIC WEB…………..……………………………………………1
1.1 What is the Semantic Web? ………..…..……………...………………………... 2
1.2 The Semantic Web Layers Approach…………………………………………….5
1.3 A Graph Database Model………………………………………………………...7
1.3.1 Hierarchical Database Model………….………………………………….7
1.3.2 The Relational Database Model…….…………………………………….8
1.3.3 The Graph Database Model………………………………………………9
1.3.3 The Graph Database Model………………………………………………9
1.3.3.1 The benefits of a Graph Data Model………...……………..…………..10
1.4. Identify Resources on The Web………………………………………………...13
1.4.1 Universal Resource Identifier (URI)…………………………………….13
1.4.2 Fragment Identifier………………………………………………………13
1.4.3 Relative URIs……………………………………………………………14
1.4.4 Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI)……………………………..14
1.5 Dublin Core Metadata Element Set……………………………………...………14
1.6 The Core Components of Semantic Web…………………………………...….…17
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1.6.1.1 The Resource Description Framework (RDF)………………………..17
1.6.1.2 RDF Data Model………………………………………...……………20
1.6.1.3 RDF Literals , Blank Node, and Datatypes…………………………...22
1.6.1.4 RDF Vocabulary URI and Namespace………………………………..23
1.6.1.5 RDF Vocabulary………………………………………………………23
1.6.1.6 Notation-3, Turtle, and N-Triples………………….…………………..23
1.6.2.1 What Is Ontology?...... 24
1.6.2.2 The Benefits of Ontology…………………………………………….25
1.6.2.3.1 RDF Schema (RDFS)……………………………………………….26
1.6.2.3.2 RDFS Terms………………………………………………………...27
1.6.2.4.1 OWL: Web Ontology Language…………………………………....28
1.6.2.4.2 The Sublanguages of OWL…………………………………….…..30
1.6.2.4.3 OWL Language Terms……………………………………………..31
1.6.2.5 SPARQL: Querying the Semantic web……………………………….33
1.7 Real-World Examples of Semantic Web……………………………………..…34
1.7.1 FOAF: Friend of a Friend……………………………………………….34
1.7.2 DBpedia…………………………………………………………………34
1.8 The Popular Frameworks for the Semantic Web Applications…………………35
1.8.1 Jena……………………………………………………………………...35
1.8.2 Protégé…………………………………………………………………..36
CHAPTER 2 Arabic Language………………………………………………………38
2.1 A History of Arabic Language……………………………………………….....38
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2.2 Arabic Basics Rules…………………………………………………………..…39
2.2.1 The Arabic Alphabet…………………………………………………..39
2.2.2 Supplementary Letters………………………………………………...41
2.2.3 Writing Arabic Letters………………………………………………...41
2.2.4 Arabic Vowels………………………………………………………...43
2.2.4.1 Short Vowels…………………………………………………..43
2.2.4.2 Long Vowels………………………………………………....44
2.2.4.3 Diphthongs…………………………………………………….45
2.2.5 Tashdīd…………………………………………………………………45
2.2.6 Tanwīn…………………………………………………………………..46
2.2.7 Types of Hamzah………………………………………………………..46
2.2.7.1 Permanent Hamzah………………………...……………………46
2.2.7.2 Connecting Hamzah………………………………………….….48
2.2.8 The Sun and Moon Letters………………………………………………49
2.2.9 Gender in Arabic…………………………………………..…………….50
2.2.10 Singular, Dual and Plural………………………………………...…….52
2.2.11 Arabic Sentence………………………………………………………..55
2.2.11.1 Nouns ……………………………………………………...…..55
2.2.11.2 The Verb……………………………………………………….56
2.2.11.3 Particles………………………………………………………..57
2.2.11.4 Basic Arabic Sentence Structure………………………………58
CHAPTER 3 Arabic Language and Semantic Web…………………………….……59
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3.1 Arab Countries…………………………………………………………….....59
3.2 Arabic One of the Most Influential Languages………………………………60
3.3 The importance of Arabic language…………………………………………..63
3.4 Differences Between Arabic and English Languages………………………...64
3.5 Arabic Language and Semantic web Technologies…………………………..68
3.6 Abstract………………………………………………………………………..72
CHAPTER 4 An Arabic Semantic Web Model………………………….……...…74
4.1 An Arabic Core Metadata Initiative (ACMI)….………………………………76
4.2 An Arabic Semantic Web Model………………………………………………84
4. 2.1 Storing Arabic Data as Graph Database (RDF Triple)……………….84
4.2.1.1 Visualizing Arabic Sentences as Graph Database….……….88
4.2.1.2 Arabic RDF Triple……………………………………………90
4.2.2 Arabic RDF……………………………………………………………90
4.2.2.1 Abstract Model of Arabic RDF………..…………………….92
4.2.2.2 Arabic RDF Serialization: Arabic RDF/XML ……………..103
4.2.2.2.1 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms I………………….104
4.2.2.2.2 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms II…………………108
4.2.2.2.3 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms III…………..….…111
4.2.2.2.4 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms IV………………...112
4.2.2.2.5 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms V………………….114
4.2.2.2.6 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms VI…………………115
4.2.2.2.7 Using (ACMI) in RDF Documents…………….……117
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4.2.2.3 Benefits of Using Standard Arabic RDF Vocabulary …...... 118
118..………………………………………(تعريف المفاهيم)Arabic Web Ontology 4.2.3
4.2.3.1 Arabic Web Ontology and its Benefits……………………….….119
4.2.3.2 Basic Notions of Arabic Web Ontology………………………....120
4.2.3.3 Arabic Web Ontology Language (AOWL) Vocabulary Terms….121
4.2.3.3.1 AOWL Vocabulary Terms I……………………..121
4.2.3.3.2 AOWL Vocabulary Terms II…………………….122
4.2.3.3.3 AOWL Vocabulary Terms III…………………...124
4.2.3.3.4 AOWL Vocabulary Terms IV……………………127
4.2.3.3.5 AOWL Vocabulary Terms V…………………….128
4.2.3.3.6 AOWL Vocabulary Terms VI……………………132
4.2.3.3.7 AOWL Vocabulary Terms VII………………...... 136
4.2.3.3.8 AOWL Vocabulary Terms VIII…….……………138
4.2.3.3.9 AOWL Vocabulary Terms IX……………………142
4.2.3.3.10 AOWL Vocabulary Terms X ………..………….145
4.2.3.3.11 AOWL Vocabulary Terms XI…………………..152
CHAPTER 5 Conclusion and Future Work………………………….……...….154
5.1 Conclusion………………………………………………………………154
5.2 Future Work and Recommendations……………………………………155
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………… 157
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1. Generations of the web…………………..……………………………………2
Figure 1.2. Shows the layered approach of the semantic web……..…………………..….3
Figure 1.3. Illustrates the structure of the hierarchical database model……..…………….8
Figure 1.4. Illustrates the structure of the relational database model………….………….9
Figure 1.5. Shows the use of graph databases on social networks……………………..10
Figure 1.6. Shows an example of the graph database…………………………………...12
Figure 1.7. Shows the representation of statements……………………………………...19
Figure 1.8. Shows the RDF triple……………………………...………………………...22
Figure 1.9. Jena’s homepage site…………………………...……………………………36
Figure 1.10. Shows the homepage site of Protégé………...……………………………..37
Figure 3.1. Speakers of Arabic language……………………...………………………..60
Figure 3.2 Most influential language in the world……………………………….………61
Figure 3.3. The mount of people that speak a language………...……………………….62
Figure 3.4. Number of primary speakers………………………..……………………….63
Figure 3.5. Arabic script represents 8.9% of the world’s languages……...……………..64
Figure 3.6. The garbled appearance of Arabic characters when using the Ontoviz ...…..70
Figure 3.7 Beseiso’s framework of semantic web for an Arabic language………..…….71
Figure 4.1. Visualizes the relation of (Ahmed and Aisha are a couple) as graph…..…...86
Figure 4.2. Representing my address information as a graph………………….…….….88
Figure 4.3. Represents three Arabic nominal sentences as a graph………….…..….…..89
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Figure 4.4. Represents four Arabic verbal sentences as graph………………….…….89
Figure 4.5. Shows the graph structure of an Arabic statement………………..……….93
Figure 4.6. Shows the graph representation of the statements in List 4.1……....……...94
Figure 4.7 Graph representation of List 4.6 and List 4.8……………………….……102
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1. Expressing figure 1.7 as a collection of RDF triple…….….………………..21
Table 1.2 RDFS class terms……………………………………….……………………27
Table 1.3. RDFS class terms…………………………….……………………………....28
Table 2.1. The Arabic Alphabet……… …………………….…………………...………40
Table 2.2. Supplementary Letters…………………………..……………………………41
Table 2.3. Writing Arabic Letters…………………………..……………………………41
43...……………………………..……………………………..……… ا join ل .Table 2.4
Table 2.5. Short vowels…………………………………………………………………44
Table 2.6. Examples of long vowels……………………………………………………44
Table 2.7. Examples of diphthongs…………………………………………………..…45
Table 2.8. Examples of Tashdīd…………………………………………………...……45
Table 2.9. Examples of Tanwīn………………………………………………………….46
Table 2.10. Permanent hamzah at the beginning of the word……………………………47
Table 2.11. Permanent hamzah at the middle of the word………………..……………..48
Table 2.12. Permanent hamzah at the end of the word…………………………………..48
Table 2.13. Sun Letters………………………………………………………………….49
Table 2.14. Moon Letters………………………………………………………………..50
Table 2.15. Examples of masculine and feminine gender……………………...………..51
Table 2.16. Closed ‘ta’ at the end does not form feminine nouns of some masculine…..52
Table 2.17. Sound Masculine Plural……………………………………………………..53
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Table 2.18. Sound Feminine Plural………………………………………………………54
Table 2.19. Broken Plural…………………………………..……………………………54
Table 2.20. Example of Particles…………………………………..…………………….57
66...…………...….……(نوم )Table 3.1 Represents different derivations words of the word
Table 3.2. Arabic represents the dual relationship ………………………..……………..68
Table 4.1. Attributes that specify the ACMI terms…………………..…………………..76
Table 4.2. ACMI elements with their names, labels, IRIs, and definitions…..…………77
Table 4.3. Shows some examples of different datatype in Arabic language…..………..99
Table 4.4 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms I……………………………………………104
Table 4.5 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms II…………………………………………..108
Table 4.6 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms III……………………………………….…111
Table 4.7 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms IV………………………………………….112
Table 4.8. Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms VI…………………………………………115
Table 4.9. AOWL Vocabulary Terms I………………………………………………...121
Table 4.10. AOWL Vocabulary Terms II………………………………………………122
Table 4.11. AOWL Vocabulary Terms III……………………………………………..124
Table 4.12. AOWL Vocabulary Terms IV……………………………………………..127
Table 4.13. AOWL Vocabulary Terms V…………………….………………………..128
Table 4.14. AOWL Vocabulary Terms VI…………………………………………….132
Table 4.15. AOWL Vocabulary Terms VII……………………………………………136
Table 4.16. AOWL Vocabulary Terms VIII…………………………………………..138
Table 4.17. AOWL Vocabulary Terms IX…………………………………………….142
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Table 4.18. AOWL Vocabulary Terms X……………………………………………..145
Table 4.19. AOWL Vocabulary Terms XI…………………………………………..152
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DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents, Amrah Abdullah
Alharthi and Ayed Ibn Bedya Alharthi for giving me every good thing I have in my life through their love and sacrifice.
This work is dedicated also to my advisor, Prof. Austin Melton, for his guidance, and encouragement throughout my thesis.
Also I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family and friends , for encouraging and supporting me throughout my life and especially during my studies in the United States.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like first to acknowledge Allah, All perfect praise and thanks are for Him, the Most Merciful; the Most Compassionate; the One who is the source of all success. As it was mentioned, The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: He who does not thank Allah does not thank people. (Abu Dawud Book 36, Number 4793).
So, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my professor and advisor ,
Austin Melton , for all of his support and time he spent to teach me and answer my questions. He was my inspiration in my thesis. I thank him for his guidance, encouragement during this work.
Also, I would like to acknowledge Liyang Yu whose book, A Developer’s Guide to the Semantic Web, which help me in my work.
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Angela Guercio who helped me at the beginning of my research.
I would like to thank my thesis committee members: Prof. Cheng Chang Lu, Dr.
Farid Fouad, and Dr. Angela for their insightful comments and invaluable advice.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my roommates, classmates, and friends, in the United States who helped and supported me while I was here.
Khalid Alharthi
Tuesday, April 23, 2013, Kent, Ohio xiv
CHAPTER 1
Semantic Web
The development of the web was one of the greatest inventions of recent times.
Naik, Umesha, and Shivalingaiah mentioned that its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, has had a major influence on guiding the development of web standards, Since 1989 when it was created. In recent years he has advocated his vision of a Semantic web (1). Since the growth and developments of technologies, there have been a lot of changes in the vision of the current web from the vision of the first web. Therefore, the generations of the web can be classified into three generations: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 (Semantic Web generation) as shown in Figure 1.1. The websites in the Web 1.0 are static, never changing, not interactive, and read only web. On the other hand, there is a possibility to change the contents of the websites in the Web 2.0 and interact with their contents. Also,
Web 2.0 can connect people around the world through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter; and sharing other contents and resources such as YouTube. In Web2.0, other devices can be used to access the web like cell phones and video game consoles. This is why the web 2.0 can be referred to as read-write generation. After decades of using the web, there is an exigent to restructure the web allowing the machines to do the work that humans do on the web. The semantic web generation Web 3.0 will change our vision of the web since the main idea of this generation aims to enable the machines to understand what they present.
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Figure 1.1. Generations of the web. “Generations of the Web”. Pollock, Jeffrey T. Semantic Web for dummies. For Dummies, 2009.
1.1 What is the Semantic Web?
First off, let us clarify the difference between syntax and semantics. The syntax is
concerned with how to say or write something whereas the semantic concerns are with
the meaning of what has been said or written. The semantic web is coined by Sir Tim
Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) director, by the May 2001
Scientific American article “The Semantic Web” (Berners-Lee et al.2001), who defined it
as:
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“The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation” (1).
Developing the research tools for web browsers, developing information integration services, and facilitating the data on the web for data mining tools are three general issues that the semantic web is interested in (Yu, " Introduction to the semantic web and semantic web services " 6-7 ).W3C Semantic Web Activity defined the semantic web as the following:
“The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundarie.” (W3C SEMANTIC
WEB ACTIVITY 1).Also Liyang Yu, the author of “A Developer’s Guide to the
Semantic Web” , defined the semantic web as:
“The Semantic Web is a collection of technologies and standards that allow machines to understand the meaning (semantics) of information on the Web” (15).
Chris Baron and Massimo Di Pierro simplify the concept of semantic web as :
“The semantic Web is a group of methods and technologies to allow machines to understand the meaning - or \semantics of information on the World Wide Web" (2).
From all the above semantic web definitions, it is clear to understand the goal of semantic web is to make the web more understandable and accessible by machines. The target of semantic web evolution is to allow the computers to play a role on the web. So instead of the current web, an intelligent web that can do intelligent processes such as aggregating , combining, etc., is desired. The semantic web is concerned with two main parts: the data on the web and agents that process that data. Therefore, a considerable
4
amount of work on each part is needed in order to develop a semantic web model that achieves semantic web goals. So, as for the web data, a model of semantic web has to be created to achieve the following aspects:
There needs to be a way to easily process each piece of knowledge
collected by the agent on the web so that the machines can understand it.
This model should be standardized throughout all Web sites to share a
common pattern.
A way to create these statements has to be developed, to be either
manually added or automatically generated.
There should be no arbitrary statements contained in different Web sites.
An agreement on common terms and relationships should be defined to
specify different Web sites to use those terms when creating their
statements.
Also, from the view of the agents (softwares) which process the data on the web, semantic web intends to achieve the following:
Each statement that is collected has to be understood by an agent.
Based on the agents understanding of the common terms and
relationships, it conducts its reasoning.
The agent conducts common queries against the statements that are
collected. ( Lu, " Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web " 8)
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1.2 The Semantic Web Layers Approach
Figure 1.2. Shows the layered approach of semantic web
Figure 1.2 shows the layered approach of the semantic web which describes the vision of semantic web. This approach is changeable because some of development and some changes of the semantic web vision. To make the semantic web approach more acceptable by organizations, companies, groups, and single users, it must divide the semantic web vision into smaller parts, steps, or layers. Hence, the semantic web model is
6
a collection of layers which are in a hierarchical form i.e. each a layer on top of another layer. When using this hierarchical form there are some rules that need to be adhered to:
1. Downward compatibility: Agents should be able to interpret and use the
information written at lower layers.
2. Upward partial understanding: partial advantage of information at higher levels
should taken of by the agent as well.
At the bottom of pyramid the URL is used to represent the resources while the
XML is used to transport and store data in structured web documents in the form of the user’s own vocabulary. Similar to the entity-relationship model, RDF is a basic data model for writing simple statements about Web objects (resources). Although it has an
XML-based syntax, it does not rely on XML. It is located on top of the XML layer as seen in Figure 1.2. There are modelling primitives provided by the RDF Schema which is based on RDF, for organizing Web objects into hierarchies. Key primitives have classes and properties, subclass and subproperty relationships. They also have a domain and range restrictions (Antoniou, Grigoris, Van Harmelen. “Semantic Web Primer” 16-18).
Web Ontology languages (OWL) include RDF Schema and other constructs allowing for a more complex relationships to be represented between Web resources whereas the SPARQL is used to query the RDF documents. RIF (Rules Interchange
Format) is a language for representing rules on the web and for linking different rule- based systems together (Cardiff 4). The logic layer is used to enhance the ontology language further, and to allow to write application-specific declarative knowledge.
7
The actual deductive process comes together with the representation of proofs in
Web languages (from lower levels) and proof validation to form the proof layer. Finally through the use of digital signatures and other kinds of knowledge, trust will emerge based on rating and certification agencies and consumer bodies or recommendations of agents we trust (Antoniou, Grigoris, and Van Harmelen 18).
1.3 A Graph Database Model
There are many database models to store information. “A database model is a collection of conceptual tools for describing the real-world entities to be modeled in the database and the relationships among these entities” (Silberschatz, etc. 1). “A database model consists of three components: a set of data structure types, a set of operators or inference rules, and a set of integrity rules” (Codd 61-98). There are many different models to represent the data and the relation between them such as a hierarchical database model, relational database model, and graph database model. First, it is useful to compare between the database models and explain why the graph database model is suitable for semantic web.
1.3.1 Hierarchical Database Model
Another type of database model is a hierarchical. “A hierarchical database consists of a collection of records that are connected to each other through links. A record is similar to a record in the network database model. Each record is a collection of fields (attributes), each of which contains only one data value. A link is an association between precisely two records. Thus, a link here is similar to a link in the network
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model” (Mertz 2).Figure 1.3 illustrates the structure of the hierarchical database model
(Mertz 2).
Figure 1.3. Illustrates the structure of the hierarchical database model.
1.3.2 The Relational Database Model
The relational database model is a set of tables to store the data and
represent the relationships between them. Each table consists of a set of fields and
each field, a set of rows. This model is most used model for storing data and
representing the relation among entities. Figure 1.4 illustrates the structure of the
relational database model (Mertz 2).
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Figure 1.4. Illustrates the structure of the relational database model.
1.3.3 The Graph Database Model
Another type of database model used in semantic web is a graph database model.
“A graph database model is a model in which the data structures for the schema and/or instances are modeled as a directed, possibly labeled, graph, or generalizations of the graph data structure, where data manipulation is expressed by graph-oriented operations and type constructors, and appropriate integrity constraints can be defined over the graph structure (Angles, Renzo, and Gutierrez 1). From the definition of a graph database model, we can conclude the following three characteristics of that model:
i. Data is represented as a graph.
ii. The graph database model uses the graph operations to process the data such as
paths, neighborhoods, subgraphs, or graph patterns.
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iii. Data consistency is enforced by integrity constraints like unique names and
constraints on the nodes (Angles, Renzo, and Gutierrez 1).
1.3.3.1 The benefits of a Graph Data Model
The graph database model is the appropriate model for data whose interconnectivity is as important as the data itself, such as social network data. The advantages of the graph data model can be summarized as below.
• By using the graph , the data becomes more visible to the users.
• Queries can refer directly to this graph structure (Angles, Renzo, and Gutierrez 1).
“For implementation, graph databases may provide special graph storage structures, and efficient graph algorithms for realizing specific operations”( Gyssens etc. ). Figure
1.5 shows the use of graph databases on social networks (Eifrem 1).
Figure 1.5. Shows the use of graph databases on social networks.
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Storing and representing data in terms of graph database requires the use of graph structures with nodes, edges, labels, and properties. The element in the graph database system has a pointer to its adjacent element directly without index lookups. As known, the graph database model depends on the graph theory, so this model of databases uses nodes, edges, properties. Nodes represent entities such as people, organizations, or companies. Properties carry information that connects the nodes with each other. The lines that link nodes to nodes or properties are the edges. Figure 1.6 shows how the graph database model is used to store and represent the data of entities. From the graph, Tim knows Tom because Tom is his supervisor, and they have the same research field, semantic web. Also, Tim has a friendship with Tom’s son John, and Tom has a wife
Anna. Tom Also, owns a car that is a 2005 white Toyota Camry with 40,980 miles.
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Tim
John
Tom
Anna
Semantic
web
40,980 Toyota
camry
white 2005
Figure 1.6. Shows an example of the graph database
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1.4. Identify Resources on The Web
1.4.1 Universal Resource Identifier (URI)
First off, it is beneficial to know the difference between a URL (Uniform resource locator), URI (Universal Resource Identifier), and IRI (Internationalized
Resource Identifier). “A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a compact string representation of the location network for a resource that is available via the Internet”
(Masinter 1) while a URI (Universal Resource Identifier) is a string representation to identify a resource whether by a name, location network, or both name and location network together. Therefore, a URL is a special form of URI which leads to the network location of a resource such as a web page, video, or image.
“URIs typically consist of three pieces: The naming scheme of the mechanism used to access the resource; the name of the machine hosting the resource; the name of the resource itself, given as a path” (Introduction to HTML4 1). The following string is an example of a URI:
http://www.w3.org/TR
So the above URI says , there is a document available via the HTTP protocol , residing on the machine www.w3.org, accessible via the path "/TR". URIs have many usages such as linking to another resource, linking an external style sheet , or refer to metadata that describe a document (Introduction to HTML4 1) .
1.4.2 Fragment Identifier
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The fragment identifier is a URI string attached by "#" and an anchor fragment identifier to identify a location within a resource (Introduction to HTML4 1). For example , The following URI points to an anchor fragment (iPad) of Apple URI:
http://www.apple.com#ipad
1.4.3 Relative URIs
A relative URI contains no naming scheme information; the path generally refers to a resource on the same machine as the current document. Relative URIs may contain fragment identifiers and relative path components. Relative URIs are resolved to full
URIs using a base URI. As an example of relative URI resolution, assume we have the base URI "http://www.acme.com/support/intro.html". The relative URI in the following markup for a hypertext link:
Suppliers (Introduction to HTML4 1)
1.4.4 Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI)
IRI stands for Internationalized Resource Identifier. “IRIs are defined similarly to
URIs , but the class of unreserved characters is extended by adding the characters of
the UCS (Universal Character Set (Unicode/ISO 10646)” (Dürst, Martin, and Suignard
1). IRIs are suitable to represent a national language other than English such as
Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic languages.
1.5 Dublin Core Metadata Element Set
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The metadata is used to explain and describe other data, so the "metadata" means data about data. Before explaining the fifteen core elements DCMI, first the DCMI
Abstract Model terminologies in namespace policy will be defined as bellow:
“term - A property (element), class, vocabulary encoding scheme, or syntax encoding scheme.
URI - A Uniform Resource Identifier [URI] or Internationalized Resource Identifier
[IRI].
“DCMI term - A term that is declared and maintained by DCMI. term URI - The URI that identifies a term.
DCMI term URI - The URI for a term that is declared and managed by DCMI. term name - A unique token assigned to a term. For all DCMI terms, the term name is appended to a DCMI namespace URI to create the DCMI term URI. term label - A human-readable label assigned to a term.
DCMI namespace - A collection of DCMI term URIs where each term is assigned a URI that starts with the same 'base URI'. The 'base URI' is known as the DCMI namespace
URI” (Powell, Andy, and Wagner 1).
The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set is a pre-defined URIs used for resources description purposes. This set contains fifteen elements. The Dublin Core name came from the Metadata Workshop sponsored by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in the March 1995 in
Dublin, Ohio; and "core" because its vocabularies are generic, suitable for most of the existing resources.
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The Dublin Core elements are part of the full set of vocabularies - metadata vocabularies and technical specifications. The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set have been officially endorsed by ISO, ANSI/NISO, and IETF RFC standards in February
2009, May 2007, and August 2007 respectively. Also, these fifteen elements are widely used in semantic web and natural language processing domains, and all URIs in DCMI have the following prefix string:
http://www.purl.org/metadata/dublin-core# and the URI string is associated with the namespace prefix DC:( Yu, Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web 79-89). The fifteen elements of Dublin Core are:
Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Publisher, Contributor, Date, Type, Format,
Identifier, Source, Language, Relation, Coverage, and Rights (Dublin core metadata element set, version 1.1. 1).
1.6 The Core Components of Semantic Web
1.6.1.1 The Resource Description Framework (RDF)
“The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a language for representing information about resources in the World Wide Web. It is particularly intended for representing metadata about Web resources, such as the title, author, and modification date of a Web page, copyright and licensing information about a Web document, or the availability schedule for some shared resource” (Manola etc 2). So, for any resources on the web, RDF can be used to describe it. Not only can RDF describe the retrieved resources but also by RDF language anyone can use metadata about resources which cannot be retrieved directly.
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RDF is considered the main building block of semantic web, and its main goal is to allow applications to understand and manipulate the information on the web rather than by the human eyes display. RDF uses URIs for identifying resources on the web, and it uses a common vocabulary to describe resources in properties and property values form. Therefore. RDF represents resources as a graph of nodes and arcs, where nodes represent things and arcs represents the relation between those things.
To make our explanation of RDF clear, we explain the principles and concepts of
RDF by giving a concrete example, which contains multiple statements. So, we need to represent the following group of statements in RDF language as shown by the following statement and represented in figure 1.7.
“Steven identified by http://www.w3.org/People/SJ/contact#me, whose full name is
Steven Jhonen, his email address is [email protected], and his title is Dr.”
Figure 1.7 exhibits the following:
(Individual), Steven Jhonen, is identified
by http://www.w3.org/People/EM/contact#me
The kinds of things, e.g., Person, are identified
by http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contact#Person
The properties of those things, e.g., fullName, are identified
by http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contact# fullName,
and
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The values of those properties, e.g. Steven Jhonen as the value of the
fullName property.
RDF provides various RDF serialization formats such as RDF/XML format,
Notation3, and Turtle. The RDF serialization format used to transform the RDF graph into an RDF statement representation which can be understood by a machine. List 1.1. is
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Dr. http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contact#PersonalTitle
http://www.w3.org/People/SJ/contact#me
http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/p http://www.w3.org/1999/02/ 22-rdf-syntax-ns#type im/contact#mailbox
http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contac
t#fullName
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.w3.org/200
0/10/swap/pim/contact
Steven Jhonen
Figure 1.7. Representation of statements.
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an RDF / XML representation corresponding to the RDF graph in the preceding Figure
1.7.
List 1.1 An RDF / XML representation of Figure 1.7.
1.6.1.2 RDF Data Model
The goal of the RDF data model is to provide a simple model to represent knowledge for applications which are built on the top of it to be more easily processed. It is separated from any RDF serialization format. So, the RDF data model is used to express any knowledge on the web into statements; it has the following components:
Statement ( a small specific piece of knowledge )
21
Resources ( subject and object ).
Predicate (the relation between subject and object).
To express the idea of the RDF data model we used the following two rules:
“Rule #1:
Knowledge (or information) is expressed as a list of statements, each statement takes the
form of Subject-Predicate-Object, and this order should never be changed.
Rule #2:
The name of a resource must be global and should be identified by Uniform Resource
Identifier (URI). The name of predicate must also be global and should be identified by
URI as well” (Yu, Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web 25,31).
A statement consisting of the three following components:
i. The subject, which is an RDF URI reference or a blank node
ii. The predicate, which is an RDF URI reference
iii. The object, which is an RDF URI reference, a literal or a blank node
The above components called an RDF triple (Carroll, Jeremy , Klyne 6). Table 1.1 is
expressing figure 1.7 as a collection of RDF triple (Subject- Predicate- Object)
Table 1.1. Expressing figure 1.7 as a collection of RDF triple.
Subject Predicate Object http://www.w3.org/Peop http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pi Steven Jhonen le/SJ/contact#me m/contact#fullName http://www.w3.org/Peop http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pi mailto:[email protected] le/SJ/contact#me m/contact#mailbox
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http://www.w3.org/Peop http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pi Dr. le/SJ/contact#me m/contact#PersonalTitle http://www.w3.org/Peop http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf- http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swa le/SJ/contact#me syntax-ns#type p/pim/contact#Person
1.6.1.3 RDF Literals , Blank Node, and Datatypes
As explained, a subject (start node) is identified by its URI and refers to any
resource in the world, also an object (end node) is identified by its URI or literal values
and refers to any resource in the world. A predicate (edge ) is identified by URI and
refers the relation between the subject and object.
We can call the subject by resource, and we can call the predicate by the property
whereas we can only call the object by property value. Figure 1.8 shows the RDF triple
graph.
resource property value
property
Figure 1.8. Shows the RDF triple. A URI reference or literal is used as a node to identify what that node represents.
A URI reference used as a predicate identifies a relationship between the things
represented by the nodes it connects. “A predicate URI reference may also be a node in
the graph” (Carroll, Jeremy J., Klyne 7). A literal value takes a string as value, and
literals can be plain i.e. text in a natural language or typed i.e. a string combined with a
datatype URI. “A blank node is a node that is not a URI reference or a literal. A blank
node is just a unique node that can be used in one or more RDF statements, but has no
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intrinsic name”(Carroll, Jeremy J., Klyne 7). The blank node uses a blank node identifier as a local identifier to distinguish it from other URIs and literals in the same RDF document. N-ary (n-way) relationship in RDF models can be represented by blank node
(Yu, Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web 39). Datatypes in RDF consists of a lexical space, a value space, and a lexical-to-value to indicate the datatype values (Carroll,
Jeremy J., Klyne 7).
1.6.1.4 RDF Vocabulary URI and Namespace
RDF uses URIs references to identify resources and properties. Certain URI references give specific meaning of RDF. Specifically, URI references with the following leading substring are defined by the RDF specifications:
http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns# conventionally combined with namespace prefix rdf: used with the RDF/XML serialization (Carroll, Jeremy J., Klyne 10).
1.6.1.5 RDF Vocabulary
The following is an RDF vocabulary terms which are used to describe
resources for machines:
rdf:RDF, rdf:Description, rdf:ID, rdf:about, rdf:parseType, rdf:resource,
rdf:li, rdf:nodeID, rdf:datatype, rdf:Seq, rdf:Bag, rdf:Alt, rdf:Statement,
rdf:Property,rdf:XMLLiteral, rdf:List, rdf:subject, rdf:predicate, rdf:object,
rdf:type, rdf:value, rdf:first, rdf:rest _n , rdf:nil(Yu, Developer's Guide to the
Semantic Web 42-43).
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1.6.1.6 Alternative RDF Serialization Formats (Notation-3, Turtle, and N-Triples)
RDF/XML is hard to read because it is not designed for human eyes, but there are other RDF serialization formats, such as Notation-3 , Turtle, and N-Triples that perfom similarly, but in addition take into account the human eye display. “Notation 3 (also known as N3), an assertion and logic language which is a superset of RDF. N3 extends the RDF data model by adding formulae (literals which are graphs themselves), variables, logical implication, and functional predicates, as well as providing a textual syntax alternative to RDF/XML” (Berners-Lee, Connolly 1). Turtle is created as a simplified subset of N3 because N3 language has many features which are not essential for serialization to represent the RDF models and graph. “Turtle allows an RDF graph to be completely written in a compact and natural text form, with abbreviations for common usage patterns and datatypes. Turtle provides levels of compatibility with the existing N-Triples format as well as the triple pattern syntax of the SPARQL W3C
Recommendation”(Becket., Berners-Lee 1). N-Triples is a line-based, plain text format for encoding an RDF graph (Beckett 1) but it is a simpler format than both Notation-3 and Turtle.
1.6.2.1 What Is an Ontology?
Ontology is the most important part of the semantic web world since the other processes of the semantic web are based on the ontologies. Therefore, if an adequate ontology is built for a specific domain , the goals of the semantic web will be achieved.
As known, in general “ontology is a formalization of a conceptualization”, and ontology is defined in the computer science community as the following:
25
“a shared and common understanding of a domain that can be communicated between people and heterogeneous and distributed systems” (Fensel 47).
The W3C has defined the ontology as the following:
“An ontology defines the terms used to describe and represent an area of knowledge.
Ontologies are used by people, databases, and applications that need to share domain information (a domain is just a specific subject area or area of knowledge, like medicine, tool manufacturing, real estate, automobile repair, financial management, etc”( Heflin,
Jeff 4).
From the above definition of ontology, it is clear to understand the role of ontology in the semantic web domain. First of all, ontology is used to represent an area of knowledge via defining specific terms. A domain is a particular subject or area of knowledge, such as the subject of sports, education, or shopping. Second, ontology has a vocabulary of terms (concepts or classes) and the relationships among these terms can be expressed in a hierarchical structure. Third, there is another level of relationship beside the relationships among the classes expressed by other terms called properties.
There are different ontology web languages such as RDFs, OWL1, and OWL2; OWL2 includes the features of a RDFs and OWL1.
1.6.2.2 The Benefits of Ontology
There are many benefits of ontology web which could be summarized as follows:
Web Ontology offers a method to encode knowledge to allow the
machines to understand what they present .
Web Ontology offers a common vocabulary for a specific domain.
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Web Ontology is used to define a vocabulary to structure the RDF
documents we create.
Web Ontology promotes and encourages reuse of domain knowledge.
Everything we say about a given resource, we have a reason to say it.
To share a common understanding of the structure of information among
people or software agents
To separate and analyze domain knowledge from the operational
knowledge (Noy, Natalya, McGuinness 1).
1.6.2.3.1 RDF Schema (RDFS)
RDFS is one of Web Ontology used to define a vocabulary to structure the RDF documents. The RDFS is defined in plain English as follows:
“RDFS is a language one can use to create a vocabulary (often the created vocabulary is domain-specific), so when distributed RDF documents are created in this domain, terms from this vocabulary can be used”(Yu, Developer's
Guide to the Semantic Web 110).
RDFS is a W3C standard and based on its official documents it can be defined as follows:
“RDFS is a recommendation from W3C and it is an extensible knowledge representation language that one can use to create a vocabulary for describing classes, sub-classes and properties of RDF resources” (Guha, McBride 2).
1.6.2.3.2 RDFS Terms
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RDFS is a group of vocabulary terms which are used to define classes and
properties for a specific domain such as a phone domain, and there are pre-
defined URIs for each RDFS term which identifies by them. All these URIs
share the same following URI string:
http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#
and namespace prefix rdfs: is associated with the above URI prefix string.
Tables 1.2 and 1.3 show RDFS terms which are divided into class terms and
property terms (Guha, McBride 8).
Table 1.2 RDFS class terms
Class Term Comment rdfs:Resource The class resource, everything. rdfs:Literal The class of literal values, e.g. textual strings and integers. rdfs:Class The class of classes. rdfs:Datatype The class of RDF datatypes. rdfs:Container The class of RDF containers. rdfs:ContainerMembershipProperty The class of container membership properties,
rdf:_1, rdf:_2, ..., all of which are sub-properties of
'member'.
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Table 1.3. RDFS class terms
Property Name Comment Domain Range rdfs:subClassOf The subject is a subclass of a class. rdfs:Class rdfs:Class rdfs:subPropertyOf The subject is a subproperty of a rdf:Property rdf:Property
property. rdfs:domain A domain of the subject property. rdf:Property rdfs:Class rdfs:range A range of the subject property. rdf:Property rdfs:Class rdfs:label A human-readable name for the rdfs:Resource rdfs:Literal
subject. rdfs:comment A description of the subject rdfs:Resource rdfs:Literal
resource. rdfs:member A member of the subject resource. rdfs:Resource rdfs:Resource rdfs:seeAlso Further information about the rdfs:Resource rdfs:Resource
subject resource. rdfs:isDefinedBy The definition of the subject rdfs:Resource rdfs:Resource
resource.
1.6.2.4.1 OWL: Web Ontology Language
OWL stands for Web Ontology Language, and it is the most popular language used to create web ontology. Therefore, it is inclusive of RDFS, and the aims are the same. So,
OWL can be defined in plain English as follows:
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OWL = RDF Schema + new constructs for better expressiveness (Yu,
Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web 155).
OWL has two versions, OWL1 and OWL2, and OWL2 is inclusive of OWL2 because it includes OWL1 terms and also new terms that allow for better expression. OWL1 still plays a critical role in the development of web ontologies because most ontologies are created by OWL1 constructs. W3C’s OWL 2 Primer defined the OWL as:
“The W3C OWL 2 Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a Semantic Web language designed to represent rich and complex knowledge about things, groups of things, and relations between things. OWL is a computational logic-based language such that knowledge expressed in OWL can be reasoned with by computer programs either to verify the consistency of that knowledge or to make implicit knowledge explicit” (Hitzler,
Pascal, et al 1).
OWL uses the following to define ontologies:
I. Entities: the basic elements of ontologies such as classes, properties, and
individuals, are identified by IRIs.
II. Expressions: expressions are used to express complex notions for such a domain.
III. Axioms: axioms are statements that are assumed to be true for a domain being
described (Parsia etc 4).
1.6.2.4.2 The Sublanguages of OWL
There are three sublanguages in OWL, and each of them is designed for particular communities of users.
30
I. “OWL Lite supports those users primarily needing a classification
hierarchy and simple constraints.
II. OWL DL supports those users who want the maximum expressiveness
while retaining computational completeness (all conclusions are
guaranteed to be computable) and decidability (all computations will
finish in finite time).
III. OWL Full is meant for users who want maximum expressiveness and the
syntactic freedom of RDF with no computational guarantees”(
McGuinness, Deborah , Van Harmelen 4).
1.6.2.4.3 OWL Language Terms
The following are OWL Lite terms, and they are classified based on usage:
OWL Lite terms
RDF Schema (In)Equality: Property
Features: equivalentClass Characteristics:
Class (Thing, equivalentProperty ObjectProperty
Nothing) sameAs DatatypeProperty
rdfs:subClass differentFrom inverseOf
Of AllDifferent TransitiveProperty
rdf:Property distinctMembers SymmetricProperty
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rdfs:subPropert FunctionalProperty
yOf InverseFunctionalPro
rdfs:domain perty
rdfs:range
Individual
Property Restricted Cardinality: Header Information:
Restrictions: minCardinality Ontology
Restriction maxCardinality imports
onProperty cardinality
allValuesFro
m
someValuesFro
m
Class Versioning: Annotation Properties:
Intersection: versionInfo rdfs:label
intersectionOf priorVersion rdfs:comment
backwardCompatible rdfs:seeAlso
Datatypes With rdfs:isDefinedBy
xsd datatypes incompatibleWith AnnotationProperty
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DeprecatedClass OntologyProperty
DeprecatedProperty
OWL DL and OWL Full terms have OWL Lite terms plus the following terms as shown below.
Class Axioms: Boolean Combinations of Class
oneOf, dataRange Expressions:
disjointWith unionOf
equivalentClass complementOf
(applied to class expressions) intersectionOf
rdfs:subClassOf
(applied to class expressions)
Arbitrary Cardinality:
MinCardinality
maxCardinality
cardinality ( McGuinness, Deborah , Van
Harmelen 7-9).
1.6.2.5 SPARQL: Querying the Semantic web
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SPARQL is an RDF query language, and it is one of the core components of the semantic web. SPARQL stands for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language, its definition in plain English is:
“SPARQL is a query language that we can use to query the RDF data content and
SPARQL also provides a protocol that we need to follow if we want to query a remote
RDF data set” (Yu, Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web 242).
W3C defined the SPARQL as the following :
“SPARQL can be used to express queries across diverse data sources, whether the data is stored natively as RDF or viewed as RDF via middleware… SPARQL also supports aggregation, subqueries, negation, creating values by expressions, extensible value testing, and constraining queries by source RDF graph. The results of SPARQL queries can be result sets or RDF graphs” (Harris, Steve, Seaborne 1).
There is a new version of SPARQL called SPARQL 1.1 which includes newly added features.
The benefits of SPARQL are summarized as follows:
Obtaining particular information via query RDF graphs.
Generating reports by running queries again RDF dataset.
Allowing applications to deal directly with SPARQL query results instead of
RDF documents (Yu, Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web 143).
1.7 Real-World Examples of Semantic Web
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After illustrating the technical components of the semantic web, further real- world examples of semantic web technologies will show the benefits of the Semantic
Web. FOAF and DBpedia will be used as examples to demonstrate these benefits.
1.7.1 FOAF: Friend of a Friend
FOAF stands for Friend of a Friend, and it is a project for describing people and the links between them in the form of machine-readable pages. FOAF is defined in plain
English as “a vocabulary (or, ontology) which includes the basic terms to describe personal information, such as who you are, what you do, and who your friends are…can be processed by machines” (Yu, Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web 292).
The following are some of FOAF terms which categorized into two groups, FOAF class terms and FOAF properties terms:
Classes terms: Agent, Document, Group, Image, LabelProperty, OnlineAccount,
OnlineChatAccount, Organization, Person, PersonalProfileDocument, and Project.
Properties terms: name, age, birthday, currentProject, family_name, firstName, focus, gender, homepage, interest, knows, lastName, mbox, phone, weblog, workInfoHomepage, workplaceHomepage, and yahooChatID (Brickley, Dan, Libby
Miller 4).
1.7.2 DBpedia
The other popular real-world example of a semantic web is the DBpedia project.
“DBpedia is a crowd-sourced community effort to extract structured information from
Wikipedia and make this information available on the Web. DBpedia allows you to ask sophisticated queries against Wikipedia, and to link the different data sets on the Web to
35
Wikipedia data” (Ktob 1). The DBpedia differs from Wikipedia because it is machine- readable. Also, it has its own ontology and can automatically generate RDF documents by running such processes on Wikipedia pages. Moreover, it can be accessed by using a web browser, a SPARQL endpoint, or as part of the Linked Data (Jentzsch)
1.8 The Popular Frameworks for the Semantic Web Applications
There are many development tools available for the semantic web that can be used to construct the RDF documents, ontology, queries, conducting reasoners, and other utilities. A developer can choose one or more of the frameworks (tools) they feel is the most appropriate for reaching their goal. So, Jena framework and Protégé, two of the most popular semantic web tools, will be reviewed below.
1.8.1 Jena
Jena is an API which can be used to read, create, process RDF documents, navigate through an RDF graph, query an RDF dataset via SPARQL, and inference using
OWL ontologies. Jena provides a collection of tools and Java libraries to assist in the development of semantic web and linked-data applications, tools and servers as shown in
Figure 1.9 (Jena Foundation 1)
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Figure 1.9. Jena’s homepage site.
1.8.2 Protégé
The other popular semantic web tool is Protégé . “Protégé is a free, open-source platform that provides a growing user community with a suite of tools to construct domain models and knowledge-based applications with ontologies” (Stanford Center for
Biomedical Informatics Research 1)
Protégé can be used to create ontologies ( RDFS , OWL 1.0 ,and OWL 2.0), to access ontologies, to save ontologies, to visualize classes, properties, and relations. Also,
Protégé can be used to execute reasoners. Figure 1.10 shows the homepage site of
Protégé.
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Figure 1.10. The homepage site of Protégé.
CHAPTER 2
Arabic Language
2.1 A History of Arabic Language
Arabic is one of the Semitic languages that include Hebrew, Acadian, Phoenician,
Tigre, Aramaic, Syriac, Ugaritic, Amharic, Geez, and Tigina. All of these Semitic languages have died, or at least are only used in simple ways except Arabic. For example, the Acadian and Ugaritic languages died eras ago. Hebrew is one of the oldest Semitic languages that has disappeared, but has been growing again in Israel recently. The Tigre language is a language only used as a liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean
Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Geez, which was the official language of the Kingdom of
Aksum and the Ethiopian imperial court, is only used in the literature of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian
Catholic Church, and the Beta Israel Jewish community (Adetunji 6).
There are many reasons why Arabic is still used and has a lot of speakers until now. The first reason is the prosperity of the Arabic language in the Jāhiliyyah (barbaric, primitive) age of Arab society because of the art of poetry. There were many poems written by Arab poets. Each tribe was encouraging its members to learn Arabic skills to become skillful poets. Hence, the Jāhiliyyah era was the richest time of Arabic speakers and poets. In that era some poets composed the Mu’allaqāt which was a poem that had at least one thousand verses. Also, there were annual competitions to choose the best poem which had the most eloquence and meaning. Those competitions aided in the survival of
38
39
the Arabic language. The second reason was the mission of the prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him) and the Qur’an. The Qur’an is the Holy book for
Muslims, which is in the Arabic language. The prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was teaching the Islamic rules in Arabic, and most of the basic rituals related to worship in Islam, which must be done using Arabic for both Arab or non-Arab people. For instance, there are five daily prayers in which parts of the Quran must be read in Arabic. These are the two main reasons why the Arabic language has survived, and influenced non-Arabs to learn the basics of the Arabic language (Adetunji 7-8).
2.2 Arabic Basics Rules
2.2.1 The Arabic Alphabet
Arabic is one of the languages that is written from right to left. It is composed of twenty-eight letters shown in Table 2.1. Table 2.1 shows the Arabic letters and the corresponding name of each letter which also contains its approximate consonant sound.
Table 2.1. The Arabic Alphabet.
Letter Pronunciation
alif` ا
`bā ب
`tā ت
`thā ث
jīm ج
ḥā` ح
40
khā` خ
Dāl د
dhāl ذ
rā` ر
zāy ز
sīn س
shīn ش
ṣād ص
ḍād ض
ṭā` ط
ẓā` ظ
ˁayn ع
ghayn غ
`fā ف
Qāf ق
kāf ك
lām ل
Mīm م
nūn ن
`hā ه
waw و
41
`yā ي
2.2.2 Supplementary Letters
There are three supplementary letters as shown in Table 2.2 in the Arabic language that are used frequently as well as the previous twenty-eight letters in written and spoken Arabic (Hussain 5-6).
Table 2.2. Supplementary Letters
Letter Pronunciation
Hamzah )همزة( ء
tā` Marbūṭah )تاء مربوطة( ة
alif Maqṣūrah )ألف مقصورة( ى
2.2.3 Writing Arabic Letters
Arabic is written from the right to left, and the shape of the letter depends on where it occurs in the word. Arabic letters are formed differently based on its initial position i.e. when a letter comes in the first position of a word, medial form i.e. when a letter comes between two letters in a word, or final form i.e when a letter comes in last position of a word. As shown in Table 2.3, most of the letters in Arabic words are written connected together without spaces between them as English cursive letters are written
These letters are written wrong if . و and , ز , ر , ذ , د , ا ,except the letters they joined on to any letters that come after them (Hussain 7-8).
42
Table 2.3. Writing Arabic Letters
Isolated Final form Medial form Initial form .Cannot attach letter after it ـا ا بـ ـبـ ـب ب تـ ـتـ ـت ت ثـ ـثـ ـث ث جـ ـجـ ـج ج حـ ـحـ ـح ح خـ ـخـ ـخ خ .Cannot attach letter after it ـد د .Cannot attach letter after it ـذ ذ .Cannot attach letter after it ـر ر .Cannot attach letter after it ـز ز سـ ـسـ ـس س شـ ـشـ ـش ش صـ ـصـ ـص ص ضـ ـضـ ـض ض طـ ـطـ ـط ط ظـ ـظـ ـظ ظ عـ ـع ـع ع غـ ـغ ـغ غ فـ ـفـ ـف ف قـ ـقـ ـق ق كـ ـكـ ـك ك لـ ـلـ ـل ل مـ ـمـ ـم م نـ ـنـ ـن ن هـ ـهـ ـه ه
43
.Cannot attach letter after it ـو و يـ ـيـ ـي ي
Also, there are some situations where we can join letters in different ways. For instance,
(as shown in Table 2.4 (Hussain 9 ا join ل
ا join ل Table 2.4
Isolated Final form Medial form Initial form
.Cannot attach letter after it ـال ال
2.2.4 Arabic Vowels
All Arabic letters are consonants, so they need vowels to be read. These Arabic vowels are divided into short and long vowels. There are three short vowels and three long vowels. It is an important to state that these short vowels are not letters like in the
English language, but they are diacritical marks. Diacritics are signs that are used on or under letters.
2.2.4.1 Short Vowels
There are three short vowels in Arabic as shown in Table 2.5. These three short vowels are dammah , fathah , and kasrah (Hussain 10).
44
Table 2.5. Short vowels
English word which Vowel Example Transliteration begins with this sound.
fu Foot فُ ُ __ :( َض َّمة )Dammah
ra Run رُ َُ __ :( َفتْ َحة ) Fatah بُ bi Bit ُ __ :( َك ْس َرة ) Kasrah
2.2.4.2 Long Vowels
The first thing that must be defined is the meaning of Sukun in Arabic script. Sukun is also another kind of diacritic, and it denotes to any attached consonant that is not followed by a vowel. Arabic scholars use a tiny circle diacritic to indicate Sukun. The long vowels are called Hurūfu `L –Madd in the Arabic language, and they represent a lengthened vowel sound. Long vowels are formed in the following way:
with و When a letter has a dammah diacritic and is followed by the letter
.(ــ ـ ْو ) a Sukun diacritic
ى or ا When a letter has a fatah diacritic and is followed by the letters
.(ـــَ ْى ,ـــَاْ ) with a Sukun diacritic
with a ي When a letter has a kasrah diacritic and is followed by the letter
.(ـــ ْي( Sukun diacritic
Table 2.6 below shows examples of these three long vowels (Hussain 10-11).
Table 2.6.Examples of long vowels.
Long vowel Example Transliteration English word which
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begins with this sound
shu Shoot شوُ ـ ـوُ
ha Heart هاُ ــ اُ
fi Feet ف يُ ـ ـيُ
2.2.4.3 Diphthongs
The diphthong occurs when two vowels are combined in a single syllable of an
Arabic word as shown in Table 2.7 (Hussain 11).
Table 2.7. Examples of diphthongs.
English word which Diphthong Example Transliteration begins with this sound
law Lonely لوُ ـ ـوُ ُ way Wait و يُ ـ ـيُ
2.2.5 Tashdīd
Tashdīd or shaddah means the consonant sound of the letter is doubled, the first letter has sukun, and the second letter is pronounced as indicated by its diacritic. The
Table 2.8 below shows different examples of tashdid (Hussain , ــّ mark of shaddah is
12).
Table 2.8. Examples of Tashdīd.
Example What the shaddah indicated
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ج د دكُ ج ٌّدكُ
ع ل ل مُ ع لَّمُ
قت ت لُ ٌقتّلُ
2.2.6 Tanwīn
Tanwīn or nunation n sound comes at the end of some Arabic words, and it is
and ,(ــ ) fathahtain ,(ــ ) written by doubling the diacritics and is called dammatain
.(as shown in Table 2.9 (Hussain 12 (ــ ) kasrahtain
Table 2.9. Examples of Tanwīn.
Example Transliteration Ilmun ع ل مٌُ Ilman ع ل ًما Ilmin ع ل مُ
2.2.7 Types of Hamzah
In Arabic, hamzah comes in two types, the first type is the permanent hamzah
.(همزة وصل ) and the second type is the connecting hamzah ,(همزة قطع )
2.2.7.1 The Permanent Hamzah
There are many ways to write the permanent hamzah based on its position and the vowels before it or on it as below:
ئ and , ؤ , أ so it becomes , ي or و, ا The first way is by it sitting on the
respectively.
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(إ) ا The second way is by it sitting beneath the
(ء) The second way is by it sitting on the line' - with other words
comes with diacritic dammah ا if ا However, the permanent hamzah is written on
comes with diacritic kasrah at the beginning of the word as ا if ا and fathah, and under shown table 2.10 (Hussain 14).
Table 2.10. Permanent hamzah at the beginning of the word.
Word Transliteration ummun' ٌأمٌُّ akhum' أ خُ in' إنُ
Two things must be considered if the permanent hamzah comes in the middle of a word:
A. First, we must consider the long or short vowel before hamzah,
B. Second, the vowel above hamzah.
Therefore, following rules must be applied the in the following order:
. ي i. If A or B is a kasrah, then hamzah takes place on
. و ii. If A or B is a ḍammah, then hamzah takes place on
except when it , ا iii. If A or B is a fatḥah, then hamzah takes place on an
.so in this situation rule 3.a below is applied , ا comes after an
3.a Hamzah takes place on the line.
Table 2.11 shows how to apply the above rules. However, there are a few exceptions to the rules above in some cases which are not necessary to mention (Hussain 15-16).
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Table 2.11. Permanent hamzah at the middle of the word.
Rule Word Transliteration Su'ila س ئلُ 1 ba'usa بوٌسُ 2 Sha 'ama ش ا مُ 3 Yatasa'luna يت س ا ءٌلو نُ a.3
At the end of a word, the permanent hamzah is written in a letter that corresponds to the short vowel before it, but if there is a long vowel or a sukun before the hamzah, then it takes its place on the line as shown in Table 2.12 (Hussain 15) .
Table 2.12. Permanent hamzah at the end of the word.
Word Transliteration Jaru'a ج ر ؤُ Yaqra'u يق رُ أ Muli'a ٌمل ى ء Juz'un جٌز ءُ Bina'un ب ن ا ءُ
2.2.7.2 Connecting Hamzah
and it is written at the , ا Connecting hamzah takes place on or under the letter
the connecting . انطالق and , اسم , استقبل beginning of some words, such as the word hamzah is pronounced only if it comes at the beginning of a sentence, but it is a silent if it comes in middle of the sentence. Even so, it is still written.
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2.2.8 The Sun and Moon Letters
is attached at ال To the make nouns in the Arabic language definite, the article
a car) is indefinite. By adding ) سيارة the beginning of a word. For example, the word
the car). The)السيارة at the beginning of the word, it becomes definite ال the article
Arabic letters are divided into sun letters- ’al-hurūf-ash-shamsiyyah- and Moon letters-
is silent, while ال in the article ل al-hurūf-ulqamariyyah. As for the sun letters the letter’ it is pronounced in the moon letters. Table 2.13 shows sun letters, and Table 2.14 shows moon letters (Adetunji 17) .
Table 2.13. Sun Letters.
Transliteration Arabic
تُُالتَّاجُ ’at-taj ثُُالثَّع ل بُ ’Ath-tha'lab دُُُالَّد لوُ ’Ad-dalw ذُُُالُّذبابُ ’Adh-dhubab رُُُالرّ س ا ل ةُ ’Ar-risalah زُُُالزُُّب دُ ’Az-zubd سُُالسَّط عُ ’As-sath شُُُُالشُّر ط يُُّ ’Ash-shurtivvu صُُالصَّا بونُ ’As-sabun ضُُالضّ ف دع ةُ ’Ad-difda'ah طُُالطَّابع ’At-tabiu ظُُُُالظَّر فُ ’Az-zarf لُُُُُاللَّب نُ ’Al-laban نُُُُالنَّجَّارُ ’An-najar
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Table 2.14. Moon Letters.
Transliteration Arabic أُُُُُا ْل بر ةُ al- ibrah بُُُُُا لب ق ر ةُ al-baqarat جُُُُُا لج ب لُ al-jabal حُُُُُا لح ج رُ al-hajar خُُُُُا لخ ب زُ al-khubz عُُُُُا لع س لُ al- asal غُُُُُا لغ ر يبُ al-gharib فُُُُُا لف أ رُ al-fa r قُُُُُا لق مرُ al-qamar كُُُُُا لك أ سُ al-ka su مُُُُُا ل مل كُ al-malk هُُُُُا له رُُّ al-hirr وُُُُا لو ث يق ةُ al-wath qah يُُُُا لي د al-yad
2.2.9 Gender in Arabic
.(feminine)مؤنث masculine) and)مذكر ,In Arabic, there are two types of gender
أحمد ,Masculine indicates male whether human beings, things, or animals. For instance
lion) are all masculine words. Feminine indicates)أسد mosque), and) مسجد ,(name) female whether human beings, things, or animals, feminine gender can be indicated via a
مدرسة ,(name) عائشة,closed ‘tā’ at the end of the word. For instance
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lioness). Also, in Arabic, there is no neutral. Table 2.15 shows) لبوة school, and) examples of masculine and feminine gender (Adetunji 34).
Table 2.15. Examples of masculine and feminine gender.
masculine ُمذَ َّك ُر feminine ا ْل ُم َؤ َّن ُث مسلم مسلمة رائد رائدة ملك ملكة
But attaching the closed ‘tā’ to a word does not always mean it is from feminine nouns, as shown in Table 2.16.
Table 2.16. Closed ‘ta’ at the end does not form feminine nouns of some masculine
masculine ُمذَ َّك ُر feminine ا ْل ُم َؤ َّن ُث غَي َلم ُ سَُلح فَاُة جََمل ُ َناقَُة دِيك ُ َدجاجَُة
The closed ‘tā’ is not the only feminine marker, also the ‘Alif Maqsorah (
are suffixed to nouns or adjectives to indicate feminine nouns (األلف المقصورة
may (ألف ممدودة) Also, ’Alif followed by Hamzah . سلمى or adjectives such as
, بيضاء ,هيفاء denote feminine nouns or adjectives. Some examples are
.نجالء and
In Arabic, if the speaker or reader stops at the end of a word that has a closed ‘ta’
instead of as a closed ‘ta’. There are (حرف الهاء) ’it is pronounced as the letter ‘ha
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some feminine words that have closed ‘ta’ but they do not have a masculine form such as
On the other hand, some words end with a closed ‘ta’ but .محكمة and ,قرية ,مدينة
.نابغة and رحالة indicate masculine nouns such as
Any words from the following classes are feminine even if they do not have the distinguishing feminine markers mentioned above:
, (sister) أخت . The words that are denoted in nature as feminine nouns such e.g
.(bride) عروس mother) and )أم
.(a house ) دار wind) and) ريح . The words that are feminine by usage e.g
The Kingdom of) السعودية London) and) لندن . Most cities and countries e.g
Saudi Arabia).
The words that have a common gender can be either masculine or feminine e.g.
.(way)طريق a store) and)سوق
2.2.10 Singular, Dual and Plural
.(plural) الجمع dual), and) المثنى ,(singular) المفرد Arabic words can either be
singular) indicates one thing, person or adjective that describes one) المفرد
thing either masculine or feminine.
dual) indicates to two things, persons or adjective, that describe two) المثنى
things either masculine or feminine. In Arabic, for the accusative or genitive case,
the dual is constructed by changing the vowel of the last letter of a noun to fathah
ولد at the end. For instance (ان) mark and then attaching alif letter and a noon letter
When the ya with sukūn and noon letters are attached at the end of .ولدان becomes
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In the case of a noun ending with a closed ta , that .ولدين becomes ولد ,a noun
closed ta must be changed to a normal ta, before attaching alif or ya and noon. For
and the attached noon must take a kasrah ,معلمتين or معلمتان becomes معلمة ,example
diacritic.
plural) ) indicates more than two things, persons or adjective that describe) الجمع
more than two things; either masculine or feminine. Also there are three types of
جمع المؤنث ,(Sound Masculine Plural) جمع المذكر السالم plural in Arabic. They are
.(Broken Plural) جمع التكسير Sound Feminine Plural), and)السالم
Sound Masculine Plural): in the accusative or genitive) جمع المذكر السالم .i
case, the sound masculine plural is formed by attaching the waw and noon
becomes معلم ,at end of a word. For example ( ون) with fathah letters
the noon must be ,مضاف But if the sound masculine plural is .معلمون
.depend on its position معلمو)معلمي( اللغة removed just as
Sound Feminine Plural): The sound feminine plural is)جمع المؤنث السالم .ii
.at end of a feminine noun (ات) formed by attaching the letters Alif and tā
.معلمات becomes معلمة ,For example
Broken Plural): Broken plural is an irregular plural form of a) جمع التكسير .iii
This form has no rule .أولياء becomes ولي noun or adjective. For example
and the words in this category must be memorized. Tables 2.17, 2.18, and
2.19 below shows the plural types examples in Arabic (Adetunji 36-37).
Table 2.17. Sound Masculine Plural
Singular English ُم ْف َردُ Dual ُمثَ َّنى plural َج َم َع
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Peasant a ف الحُ ف ّالح انُ ف ّالح ونُ a cook ط بَّاخُ ط بَّاخ ان ط بَّاخ ونُ a clerk مو ظَّفُ مو ظَّف انُ مو ظَّ فونُ a spectator مت ف رّ جُ مت ف رّ ج ان مت ف رّ ج ونُ a winner فائز فائزان فائزون
Table 2.18. Sound Feminine Plural
Singular English ُم ْف َردُ Dual ُمثَ َّنى plural َج َم َع a lady س يّ د ةُ س يّ د تانُ س يّ داتُ a washer women غ سَّا ل ةُ غ سّا لت ان غ سَّاالت a sister أخ تُ أخ ت انُ أخُ و ات
Table 2.19. Broken Plural
Singular English ُم ْف َردُ Dual ُمثَ َّنى plural َج َم َع a messenger ر س ولُ ر س و النُ رُ س ل a city م دين ةُ م دين ت انُ م دنُ a sea بح رُ بح ر انُ بُ ح ار a pen قل مُ قل مانُ اقالم a market س وقُ س و قانُ أسواق a son ا بنُ ا بن انُ أبناء an army ج ي شُ ج ي ش انُ ج يوشُ a month ش هرُ ش هر انُ أش هرُ a road ط ر يقُ ط ر يق ان ط ر قُ Physician a ط ب يبُ ط ب يب ان أطباء
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2.2.11 Arabic Sentence
There are three main parts in Arabic sentences: nouns, verbs, and particle. Arabic
Nouns include things, ideas, and peoples names. They are also referred to by number, gender, and case. Arabic and English verb classifications are similar, but the tenses and aspects are different. Arabic verb tags have the following sub-categories: Perfect,
Imperfect, and Imperative. The verb class is sub-categorized using numbers, person and gender. Prepositions, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interrogative Particles, Exceptions, and
Interjections (Islah Gharaibeh) make up the Particle class.
2.2.11 .1 Nouns
Without the notion of time, a noun can have meaning in itself. Nouns are divided into two types: variable and invariable. Variable nouns can be changed to diminutive, dual, plural, and the relative forms. Variable nouns are of two kinds: inert (concrete or abstract) and derived. The difference between a concrete noun and abstract nouns is that a concrete noun can be experienced through one of the five senses while an abstract noun does not. Genus and proper nouns are types of concrete nouns, but denuded originals
:are classified as abstract. Also, derived nouns can also be the following (المصدر المجرد) patient nouns, agent nouns, similar qualities, preference tools, nouns of place, nouns of time, nouns of instrument and augmented originals.
The variable nouns contain personal, elusive, circumstantial, interrogative, conditional, conjunctive, numeral, and verbal nouns, and these nouns come in one of three states: variation, form, and indication. According to the noun position in a sentence,
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variation determines whether the ending of a noun changes or not, and according to what the noun’s state, it has two categories: structured nouns and declined nouns. According to the letters that construct the noun, the form is concerned with the shape of the noun, and depends on whether the nouns are classified into five states: with extended ending, with shortened ending, sound, with curtailed ending, and quasi-sound. Finally, indication is concerned with semantics according to whether the nouns are classified into the following five sets:
i. Qualified or qualificative.
ii. Singular, dual, or plural.
iii. Masculine or feminine.
iv. Definite or indeterminate.
v. Elective-diminutive ( Al-Muhtaseb, Husni, Mellish 3).
2.2.11 .2 The Verb
The verb is the action happening in the past, present, or future, and the verb can come in a complete or deficient form. The complete verb comes in a transitive or a permanent form while the complete transitive verb comes in the active or passive form. The verbs classification depends on the following:
According to Mood: past, confirm (present or future), or imperative.
According to Number of original letters: trilateral or quadrilateral.
According to End-case analysis: declined or structured.
According to Time: past, present, or future.
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According to Radicals: denuded or augmented.
According to Defective letters:
(ء) Sound: intact, doubled, or with the Arabic character Hamza
Defective: modal, hollow, or deficient.
Mixed: separated or joined.
According to Affirmation: affirmative or negative.
According to Confirmation: Confirmed or unconfirmed ( Al-Muhtaseb, Husni,
Mellish 3-4).
2.2.11 .3 Particles
Particles in Arabic are called letters of significance; they come with nouns or verbs to give different meanings. They are used in meanings in many situations such as introduction, exclusion, authenticity, selection, solicitation, similitude, variability, astonishment, definition, causality, separation, paucity, profusion, wish, premonition, regret, condition, circumstance, exposition, attraction, finality, and so on. For instance,
Table 2.20 below shows some particles examples in the .من and , إال ,لعل ,ليت sentence( Al-Muhtaseb, Husni, Mellish 2).
Table 2.20. Example of Particles.
Particle Particle in Sentence
جئت من الحديقة من
يا ليتني كنت ترابا ليت
جاء الطالب إال أحمد إال
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ذهبت إلى المدرسة إلى
أال إنهم مفسدون أال
2.2.11.4 Basic Arabic Sentence Structure
The basic Arabic sentence has two main parts: the pillar and the supplement. The pillar has two parts: the information that can be the action or state, and the subject where an action or a state is expressed. The supplement helps specify and describe the subject.
Arabic simple sentences can be expressed two different ways depending on the first word. These two types are called the nominal or verbal sentence. The nominal
,is the sentence whose first word is a noun or noun phrase )جملة اسمية) sentence is one whose first word is a verb (Ryding 57- (جملة فعلية ) while a verbal sentence
58). Depending on the desired emphasis, will determine whether to use the verbal or nominal style.
CHAPTER 3
Arabic Language and Semantic Web
The Arabic language is one of the most important languages in the world. Since
Arabic is the language of the holy Qur’an, the 1.5 billion Muslims around the world are affected by this language. Therefore, the significance of the Arabic language comes from the fact that Arabic is the language through which the Muslims (Arabs and non-Arabs) do their acts of worship such as prayer. Also, Arabic is the largest member of the Semitic language family and one of the six official UN languages. The Arabic language has many specifications that make it different from other languages with a more complex morphology, and it is one of the most precise languages in terms of semantics.
3.1 Arab Countries
The Arab countries cover a large geographical area of the world; they extend from the Arabian Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. These Arabic countries are divided into two continents (Arabic Asian countries and Arabic African countries). Arab countries in Asia include Oman, U.A.E, Bahrain, Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Qatar,
Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen and Jordan). Arab countries in Africa include
Egypt , Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, and Mauritania. For most people, in the twenty two Middle East and North African countries, their native language is Arabic only, and a few people speak other languages as well as Arabic. Figure 3.1 below shows
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60
where the Arabic language is used and the amount of countries where the people use the
Arabic language.
Figure 3.1. Speakers of Arabic language.
3.2 Arabic One of the Most Influential Languages
According to The World's 10 most influential Languages by George Weber,
Arabic is one of the world's 10 most influential languages. The formula that they used to decide which were the most influential Languages was based on the following factors:
I. Number of primary speakers: max. 4 points
II. Number of secondary speakers: max. 6 points
III. The economic power of countries using the language: max. 8 points
IV. Number of major areas of human activity in which the language is
important: max. 8 points
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V. Number and population of countries using the language: max. 7 points
VI. Socio-literary prestige of the language: max. 4 points (plus an additional
point for being an official UN language)
As result, based on this formula, the Arabic language is the fifth most influential
Language in the world as shown in figure 3.2. This article shows estimates that the mount of people that speak a language as shown in figure 3.3.
Figure 3.2 Most influential Language in the world.
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Figure 3.3. The amount of people that speak a language.
Also, this article showed how there are a million people that speak Arabic as their primary language as shown in Figure 3.4. That indicates the percentage of the world population speaking the Arabic language in comparison with other languages. So, this study by explaining which languages are more popular in the world based on the number of their users and speakers. The Arabic language is also one of these languages which need more interest and development (Weber 2).
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Figure 3.4. Number of primary speakers.
3.3 The importance of Arabic language
The importance of the Arabic language is summarized in the following:
The Arabic language is the religious language for Muslims around the world.
Arabic is the language of the holy Qur’an.
It is the native language of twenty three countries.
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There are 200 million people that speak Arabic as a primary language.
It is one of the six official UN languages.
Has one of the richest semantic languages that have specific words to describe a
specific thing.
Arabic script represents 8.9% of the world’s languages, as shown in Figure 3.5
that explain that the classification of the world’s languages depends on their
family( AlKhalifa, AlWabil 3).
Figure 3.5. Arabic script represents 8.9% of the world’s languages.
3.4 Differences Between Arabic and English Languages
The following points highlight unique aspects of the Arabic language that do not exist in the English:
According to word order, the Arabic language is categorized as a Verb Subject Object
(VSO) language. The following exemplifies how the sentence is begun by a verb.
.(Ahmed read a beautiful story) قرأ أحمد قصة جميلة :The example is
Some Arabic sentences have no verb at all. These are referred to as nominal
sentences as previously mentioned. The example shows the sentence that has just
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nominal words, and the second example shows the sentence that has three
nominal words only.
.(The garden (is) wide)الحديقة واسعة .Example 1
.(Saad (is) the leader)سعد هو القائد .Example 2
In Arabic, the end of a word varies based on its position. For instance, there are
based on their positions like in the (المعلمون and محمد) various cases for the word
following:
Example 1:
.(Muhammad studied) درس محمد :The first case
.(I taught Muhammad) د ّرست محمدا :The second case
.(I studied with Muhammad) درست مع محمد :The third case
:represented in three different statuses as follows (محمد) The word
(محمد ) Regularity (nominative) as in .
(محمدا ) Opening (object) as in .
.( محمد ) Reduction (genitive) as in .
Example 2:
.(The teachers stood up) قام المعلمون :The first case
.(I stood up for the teachers) قمت للمعلمين :The second case
:represented in two different statuses as follows (المعلمون) The word
(المعلمون) Regularity (nominative) as in .
.(Al-Muhtaseb, Chris 6-8 ) (للمعلمين) Reduction (genitive) as in .
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“Morphological markers, particles, personal names, and other pronouns may merge with
أنلزمكموها ) words affecting their meaning”( Al-Muhtaseb, Chris 8). For example, the word
should we force it upon you while you are averse to it) is a question that includes a) (؟
verb, an agent, and two patients.
Words that have different meanings can be derived from a single word. Table 3.1 below
represents different derivations of words which are produced from the original word (
.(which means sleep( Al-Muhtaseb, Chris 8 (نوم
.(نوم ) Table 3.1 Represents different derivations words of the word
Word & Word & Meaning Meaning transliteration transliteration
Sleeping [نائ م]
Personal nouns or Pronouns can refer preceding nouns in an Arabic sentence.
They can refer to the speaker, the spoken to, or the spoken about (absent party).
But, in Arabic, since the pronoun is also affixed to the verb, it is not necessary to
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keep the pronoun in the sentence as a separate word; and therefore can be
“dropped”, which is why Arabic falls under the category of Pro-drop languages.
Example 1:
.(I)washed (my( clothes))غسلت ثوبي
.’word is pronoun the same as ‘my ثوبي ya) letter in) ي The
Example 2:
(The girls (are) writing (their) lessons)البنات يكتبن دروسهن
.means 'they' for feminine and the letters يكتبن noon) in the word) ن The letter
,is the personal noun in reduction form دروسهن noon) in the word) ن The letter
which means 'their'.
There are Annullers in Arabic that come in deficient verbs or particle form. These
Annullers work like verbs, and Annullers can be used with a primate and its predicate to
change their pronunciation and convert the time of the action. There are three groups of
particles that are part of the Annullers:
.and its sisters كان .I
.and its sistersإ ّن .II
.none) of generic negation) الIII.
.and its sistersماIV.
The following example shows how Annullers modifying the sentence:
.(The weather is nice) الج و لطي ف :The original sentence is
(The weather was nice) .كان الج و لطيفا :كان The sentence after it is preceded by
(Verily the weather is nice) .إن الج َو لطي ف :إن The sentence after it is preceded by
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The Arabic language represents the dual relationship of the number feature, Also Arabic
has its own syntax and morphology for singular, dual, and plural based on many factors
that are completely different from the English language. Table 3.2 below shows those
differences ( Al-Muhtaseb, Chris 8-11).
Table 3.2. Arabic represents the dual relationship.
Singular Dual Plural
معلمون معلمان
or or معلم
معلمين معلمين
3.5 Arabic Language and Semantic web Technologies
The Arabic language based semantic web is suffering from a lack of
support as regards to technology, tools, and applications. There are many
languages that most companies around the world do not take into consideration
and Arabic is one them. For example, for many years Android and Apple have not
supported Arabic font, so Arabic consumers have no choice but to use
technologically inferior alternatives that allow for Arabic support on Apple and
Android products. Some Arabic consumers do not use them at all. In addition,
there is no Arabic company that is concerned about manufacturing devices which
deal directly with the Arabic language; also there are a few Arabic companies that
have developed inferior tools and applications. Moreover it is not included in the
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interest or goals of the Arab countries to construct or support research centers to help the Arabic language and people to catch up with the evolution of technology.
Also, the majority of tools and applications of semantic web does not support the Arabic language at all, while a few other tools have lack of support.
However, there are a few published papers that are concerned about this issue, and most these attempts only show how the Arabic language is not supported by the semantic web tools. Because the Arabic web is far away from being supported
ehttools and applications of semantic web, the Arabic people are far away from being affected by the new era of knowledge.
Now some of the preceding studies of the Arabic language and semantic web technologies will be reviewed. A study done by Al–Khalifa and Al–Wabil showed that not only among all languages, but also even among the few right-to- left languages, Arabic has less support and development than other languages within semantic web tools and applications. Also, it showed the lack of support for the Arabic language by making a pilot test for Arabic support. The results of the test concluded that a few tools do not have enough support and that others have no support for Arabic at all. This lack of support is made apparent by the garbled appearance of Arabic characters when using the Ontoviz visualization plug-in as shown in Figure 3.6 ( Al–Khalifa and Al–Wabil 6).
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Figure 3.6. The garbled appearance of Arabic characters when using the Ontoviz visualization plug-in
Also this study illustrated that there is a problem with Arabic text encoding.
The study by Beseiso proposed an Arabic language framework for semantic web by adding a new layer to web applications in order to get better linking and searching web applications. The framework has two components: Ontology Learning and Semantic
Query Engine as shown in figure 3.7 (Beseiso 4).
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Figure 3.7 Beseiso’s framework of semantic web for an Arabic language
The published paper by Isbaitan and AlWahidi in 2011, showed some issues related to the “Meaning” concept and a model for representing the Arabic content in the semantic web application and tools by using RDF/OWL. Although I do not agree with the paper’s assertion that getting the benefit of the semantic web technologies was predicated on understanding the structure of the Arabic language, the fact is, the recommendations of this paper were very beneficial for researchers interested in Arabic and the semantic web field for the development of a semantic model and vision for the Arabic language. These were some recommendations of that study:
1. “Starting an Arabic initiative similar to DCMI.
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2. Develop a semantic model for Arabic language that can be used by OWL/RDF
editors based on triples.
3. Develop Arabic OWL Ontologies files in all important domains; i.e. GIS, eGOV,
security ...est.
4. Semantic Translation for some of the public Ontologies; Geopolitical Ontology,
eospatial Ontology …est”( Isbaitan and AlWahidi 6).
After showing the lack of research on and developments for semantic web for the
Arabic language and also these researches’ lack of providing a basic model that is able to satisfy the Arabic web requirements, this research will aim to address the gap between the semantic web and Arabic web; and address the recommendations of the above mentioned, as well as other studies and research on semantic web and Arabic by providing an Arabic Semantic Web Model. This model will describe: how Arabic data are stored, the format used to represent that data with semantics, and ontologies defining areas of knowledge through common vocabulary terms. This model will result in a revolutionized web agent able to discover new knowledge by conducting reasoning and queries on published Arabic semantic data.
3.6 Abstract
As time passes, the web continues to grow and become more beneficial for people all around the world. However, all the intelligent tasks are still done by humans such as aggregating, linking, and reasoning. The Inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, has again come up with a new vision to restructure the web in such a way that lets the machines play a more influential role. This new vision is called the Semantic Web. The Semantic
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Web is a collection of integrated technologies that allow machines to understand the information they are presented with.
Since there is not a sufficient Semantic Web model for the Arabic web, and since the majority of existing tools and applications of the Semantic Web do not support the
Arabic language, the Arabic-web is a good target for developmental research aimed at providing an Arabic Semantic Web model. This model will describe: how Arabic data are stored, the format used to represent that data with semantics, and ontologies defining areas of knowledge through common vocabulary terms. This model will result in a revolutionized web agent able to discover new knowledge by conducting reasoning and queries on published Arabic semantic data.
CHAPTER 4
An Arabic Semantic Web Model
Arabic data on the web comes in the form of web pages i.e. HTML pages that are linked and connected to each other by hyperlinks. This results in masses of Arabic information that have no meaning and no relationship. Therefore, an urgent need to discover solutions that make the Arabic data on the web more understandable and meaningful for machines. The development of the Semantic Web is the solution to this issue. To take the benefits of Semantic Web technology, an Arabic Semantic Web Model must be developed that is appropriate for Arabic data requirements and structure. The
Arabic Semantic Web Model aims to develop an approach that allows a machine to read and understand what it is presented instead of publishing data in human readable Arabic
HTML documents only. That means allowing machines to understand the semantics of
Arabic information on the World Wide Web, and extract new information and new relationships.
There are many advantages of the development of the Arabic Semantic Web
Model. First, the artificial intelligence processes will apply to the Arabic data. Second, encouraging companies and people to publish their data in a standard Arabic format and reusing the Arabic data already available. Third, the Arabic data on the web becomes more organized and meaningful. Lastly, allowing machines to extract new facts and information that are not explicitly mentioned.
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There are several components needed to build the Arabic Semantic Web Model.
First, it must specify a database model to store the information so that the Arabic
Semantic Web Model uses the graph database model which is the suitable database model in the Semantic Web world for storing data. The second component is defining the format used to represent stored Arabic data in graph databases. Third, the model shows how the Arabic data will be described semantically and which way to encode semantic meaning into Arabic web data. Finally, after defining the above core components, the
Arabic web data will be proccessable by agents and applications that are capable of doing intelligent tasks instead of humans such as linking, reasoning, and aggregating.
But before illustrating the details of the Arabic Semantic Web Model, it is beneficial to define a set of vocabulary terms providing the general metadata terms suitable for simple and generic resource descriptions on the Arabic web similar to the
Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. This has two benefits. First is that for those who do not follow semantic web technologies, these constructs can provide a simple resource description. The other benefit is that these terms can be used with other sets of vocabulary terms in an Arabic Semantic Web Model to describe resources.
So, this research is structured in the following sections:
I. An Arabic Core Metadata Initiative (ACMI).
II. An Arabic Semantic Web Model
I. Storing Arabic Data as Graph Database
II. Arabic RDF
a. Arabic RDF Model
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b. Arabic RDF/XML Serialization
III. Arabic Ontology
a. Arabic Web Ontology Language(AOWL).
Note: All the IRIs used in this study are hypothetical (not real) .
4.1 An Arabic Core Metadata Initiative (ACMI)
First off, to develop a Semantic Web model for the Arabic web, it is a good idea to start first by developing an Arabic Core Metadata Initiative (ACMI) similar to the Dublin
Core Metadata Element Set. The main goal of ACMI is to provide general metadata terms for the Arabic web that are suitable for simple and generic Arabic resource descriptions. ACMI will play an important role by annotating the resources for those
Arabic people who do not want to accept the idea of semantic web. Moreover, ACMI is highly recommended to use in Arabic RDF (illustrated later) documents as the Arabic pre-defined RDF vocabulary.
ACMI is a vocabulary set of twenty three terms for describing the Arabic web resource purposes, and each term is assigned a unique IRI. Also, all the IRIs of ACMI terms have the same following namespaces in order to ease the assignment of IRIs to the terms and for the sake and ease of processing by agents.
# مفردة_وصفية/http://www.acmi.org
:مفردة_وصفية The above IRI prefix string is associated with namespace prefix
The following Table 4.1 shows the attributes that specify the ACMI terms:
Table 4.1. Attributes that specify the ACMI terms
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Attributes Definition
Name The Arabic term is attached to the IRI of ACMI namespace to get
the full IRI of the ACMI term.
Label The label that is assigned to the ACMI term for human-readable.
IRI The Internationalized Resource Identifier to specify an ACMI term
uniquely.
Definition A statement that is used to define the term and explain its purpose.
Table 4.2 shows all ACMI elements with their names, labels, IRIs, and definitions.
Table 4.2. ACMI elements with their names, labels, IRIs, and definitions.
ملخص :Term Name 1-
ملخص# مفردة_وصفية/IRI: http://www.acmi.org
ملخص :Label
Definition: A summary of a resource.
الفئة_املس هتدفة :Term Name 2-
الفئة_المستهدفة#مفردة_وصفية/IRI: http://www.acmi.org
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الفئة املس هتدفة وامجلهور :Label
Definition: A class entity of an audience that a resource is intended for.
اترخي_ الإاتحة :Term Name 3-
تاريخ_ اإلتاحة#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
اترخي الإاتحة :Label
Definition: The date when a resource became available or will become available.
املوزع :Term Name 4-
الموزع#مفردة_وصفية/IRI: http://www.acmi.org
املوزع :Label
Definition: An entity in charge of contributions to a resource.
اترخي_الانشاء :Term Name 5-
تاريخ_االنشاء#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
اترخي الانشاء :Label
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Definition: The date that a resource was created.
مؤلف :Term Name 6-
مؤلف#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
املؤلف أو املنشئ للمصدر :Label
Definition: An entity in charge of creating a resource.
اترخي_الطبعة :Term Name 7-
تاريخ_الطبعة#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
اترخي الطبعة :Label
Definition: Date of a copyright
وصف :Term Name 8-
وصف#مفردة_وصفية/IRI: http://www.acmi.org
وصف :Label
Definition: A free-text description about a resource.
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املس توى_التعلميي :Term Name 9-
المستوى_التعليمي#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
املس توى التعلميي :Label
Definition: A class entity of an audience’s educational level which a described
resource is intended for.
مع ِّرف :Term Name 10-
معر ِف#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
املع ِّرف :Label
Definition: A unique reference to a resource within a specified context.
انرش :Term Name 11-
ناشر#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
النارش :Label
Definition: An entity in charge of publishing a resource.
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يتصل :Term Name 12-
يتصل#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
صةل وعالقة :Label
Definition: A related resource.
حقوق :Term Name 13-
حقوق#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
احلقوق :Label
Definition: Informational rights about a resource.
اجملال :Term Name 14-
مجال#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
اجملال :Label
Definition: The main topic of a resource.
عنوان :Term Name 15-
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عنوان#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
العنوان :Label
Definition: A title of a resource.
نوع :Term Name 16-
نوع#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
نوع :Label
Definition: A resource type.
يقع :Term Name 17-
يقع#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
ماكن :Label
Definition: A spatial region of a resource.
مجموعة :Term Name 18-
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مجموعة#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
مجموعة :Label
Definition: An aggregation of resources.
خدمة :Term Name 19-
خدمة#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
خدمة :Label
Definition: A system that gives functions.
عضو_يف :Term Name 20-
عضو_في#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
عضو يف :Label
Definition: A resource that is a member of a set
جزء_من :Term Name 21-
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جزء_من #مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
جزء من :Label
Definition: Describes a resource which is part of a related resource.
مصدر :Term Name 22-
مصدر#مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
مصدر :Label
Definition: A resource from which a described resource is originated from or derived.
يتطلب :Term Name 23-
يتطلب #مفردة_وصفية /IRI: http://www.acmi.org
يتطلب :Label
Definition: A related resource that is required by a described resource.
4.2 An Arabic Semantic Web Model
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4. 2.1 Storing Arabic Data as Graph Database (RDF Triple).
The Arabic Semantic Web Model defines how Arabic data on the web will be stored. The best database model to store Arabic data as Semantic Web data is the graph database in the form of RDF triple, rather than a hierarchical or relational database. So, In the Arabic Semantic Web model, the Arabic web data will be stored in the graph structure with nodes, edges, and properties.
There are many reasons why using the graph database model is best for storing
Arabic data. First of all, it has a simple data storage structure, and fits the Arabic
Resource Description Framework (Arabic RDF) requirements. The graph database is the suitable database model to link and analysis the Arabic web data. In addition, the graph database is favorable for deploying the data mining techniques through the Arabic semantic web data. Moreover, it is easy to query the graph data base.
Figure 4.1 shows how to represent and visualize the graph as a relation between a
Aisha is a)"عائشة أنثى" Ahmed is a male) and his wife )"أحمد ذكر" man
.( Ahmed and Aisha are a couple) "أحمد وعائشة زوجان" female) that states
1. أحمد ذكر.
2. عائشة أنثى.
3. أمحد وعائشة زوجان.
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ذكر أنىث
نوع_اجلنس نوع_اجلنس
يشء1 يشء2 زوج
أمحد عائشة
Figure 4.1. Visualizes the relation of (Ahmed and Aisha are a couple) as graph.
thing1)and) شيءThe above graph illustrates that there are two things 1
نوع_الجنس have three properties شيءand 2 شيءthing2), and 1)شيء2
(Ahmed) أحمد s name is’ شيءcouple). Notice that 1) زوج name), and) االسم ,(gender)
Aisha) and its) عائشة s name is’ شيءmale) . Notice also that 2) ذكرand its gender is
couple) with each other) زوجان are شيءand 2 شيءfemale , and 1 أنثى gender is
property in both directions. The arrows in the graph are زوج pointed out by the properties (called predicates in RDF). As shown in Figure 4.2 is another example representing my address information as a graph.
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12345/رمق_الطالب/http://example.org
العنوان/املصطلحات/http://example.org
يشء1
78900 1783
عسير
الغفرات بيشة
Figure 4.2. Representing my address information as a graph
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4.2.1.1 Visualizing Arabic Sentences as Graph Database
There are two types of Arabic sentences: the nominal sentence and the verbal sentence. Most Arabic language sentences are nominal sentences. The nominal sentence
" المبتدأ " is the sentence that begins with a noun. It has at least two parts; the
Alkhabar). In Arabic, the nominal sentence does not have)"الخبر" Almubtda) and the) auxilliary verbs (copulua BE). The nominal sentence can be represented as graph by adding a property (predicate) based on the meaning of the sentence. For example, representing the three following nominal sentences as a graph requires adding the property (predicate) depending on the meaning of the sentence as shown in figure 4.3.
1- ماجد العب كرة قدم.(Majed is a soccer player )
2- ماجد صديق علي. (Majed is a friend of Ali)
3- علي مهندس ( Ali is an engineer).
الفاعل , (verb) الفعل ,The verbal sentence begins with a verb and has three parts
object). In the English language, a sentence never begins) المفعول به subject), and) with a verb. The verbal sentence can normally be represented as a graph by placing a verb of the sentence in the property (predicate) position or by adding a property
(predicate) based on the meaning of the sentence. For example, the following four verbal sentences can be represented in a graph as shown in figure 4.4.
1- يحب ماجد كرة قدم.(Majed loves soccer )
2- يحب ماجد التفاح. (Majed loves apples)
3- يهتم علي باآلثار (Ali is interested in the monuments).
4- يعرف ماجد علي (Majed knows Ali)
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لعب كرة قدم
يكون
ماجد
همندس
عيل
Figure 4.3. Represents three Arabic nominal sentences as a graph.
كرة قدم
حيب التفاح
ماجد
الآاثر
عيل
Figure 4.4. Represents four Arabic verbal sentences as graph.
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4.2.1.2 Arabic RDF Triple
RDF triple will be discussed in further detail in the Arabic RDF section.
4.2.2 Arabic RDF
As illustrated, the graph data model is the model of the Semantic Web which is used to store Arabic data. The Arabic web is built for human consumption like other web data which are published in other languages, but the Arabic web still remains in a state of disorganization while web data in other languages followed the Semantic Web principles and technologies. After defining the graph database model to store Arabic web data in the Arabic Semantic Web Model, it must represent the Arabic graph data in such a format that the machines can understand. RDF is a building block of the Semantic Web that is used to represent the Arabic graph database as a format which is machine understandable.
By giving a concrete example, it will make it easier to understand how simply the Arabic data web will be converted to RDF format. I am interested in Smartphones.
Which is the best Smartphone for me and what are the pros and cons of popular
Samsung Galaxy S III , or Samsung , (آيفون_Smartphones such as Apple iPhone5 (5
from the Arabic provider (آيفون_Galaxy Note II? I decided to purchase an iPhone5 (5
Saudi Arabia's Top Telecommunications Company, so I will name the ,(موبايلي) Mobily
As it is known, the reviews of iPhone5 .(آيفوني) domain of my example by MyiPhone
on different sites are useful for deciding whether to buy this product or another (آيفون_5)
reviews on Arabic websites can measure the (آيفون_Smartphone. The iPhone5 (5 satisfaction of Arabic users for the designer of the iPhone5, so the design department of
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.in the Middle East can make improvement decisions based on those reviews (آبل) Apple
So, first I have to take a look at Arabic websites and discussion forums to find reviews
.then read the positive and negative reviews of this product ,(آيفون_about the iPhone5 (5
Currently though, the structure of Arabic web data does not satisfy my concerns.
Also, presently it is difficult for a designer or a person who is responsible for
to do their job for many reasons. One (آيفون_collecting reviews about the iPhone5 (5
must read all the reviews (آبل)reason is because the person who does reviews for Apple and make a summary about peoples’ opinions toward this product. Also, this job must be done manually. This job is tedious work because all reviews from a lot of Arabic websites need to be read and a summary based on that has to be made.
The solution of the above problem is building an application to collect all Arabic user reviews and make a summary report automatically, but that application is not easy to develop because there is no unique form to write a review. Also, companies and individuals use their own form to publish their reviews. Moreover, all Arabic websites are published for human eyes not for machines to read and understand. Therefore, such a way to reconstruct the Arabic web to become machine readable is needed, so Semantic
Web technologies and concepts must be applied on the Arabic web.
The building block for the Semantic Web is RDF, so the Arabic websites have to use the following Arabic RDF model. By using this Arabic RDF model a framework for representing Arabic information on the web can be built. Arabic RDF will allow Arabic users to express their information via formal Arabic vocabulary terms, so applications that run on that organized information can be developed. The Arabic RDF model must
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be flexible enough to express any information and have such a way to connect the
distributed knowledge over the Arabic web.
4.2.2.1 Abstract Model of Arabic RDF
The goal of the abstract model of Arabic RDF is to divide Arabic information
into small pieces with some rules that become machine understandable. This abstract is
similar to the general abstract model of RDF with some modification. The following are
the key components of the abstract model:
.(البيان)التعبير– Statement
المصدر غالبا المبتدأ في الجملة االسمية أو - Subject or resource
القيمة غالبا -( object ( value -الفاعل في الجملة الفعلية
تكملة الجملة في الجملة االسمية والمفعول به في الجملة
.الفعلية
الفعل في الجملة الفعلية أو الخبر من - ( Predicate ( property
.نوع العالقة أو الخاصية غالبا الجملة االسمية
(التعبيرأوُالبيان) Statement
As stated, the goal of the abstract model for Arabic RDF is to divide the Arabic
information into small pieces with some rules that become machine understandable, so
To apply this idea the .(التعبيرأو البيان) that small pieces are called statements
following rules have to be used:
has to be decomposed into statements, and a statement(المعرفة) Knowledge 1-
has to follow the form of triple i.e. a triple consist of (التعبيرأو الجملة)
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نوع العالقة أو ”( Predicate ( Property , ”المصدر“ (Subject ( Resource
.”القيمة”( and Object ( value , ”الخاصية
2- Using Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI) to name and identify any
resource, predicate, and object. This name (IRI) should be global and unique as
well.
(المصدر) Figure 4.5 shows the graph structure of an Arabic statement. The Resource
is the (نوع العالقة) are two things in the world, the Predicate (القيمة) and value relation between these two things. A a collection of statements is called an Arabic RDF graph.
الخاصية أو نوع العالقة المصدر القيمة
Figure 4.5. Shows the graph structure of an Arabic statement
(آيفون_For a clearer understanding, let us express some information about iPhone5 (5 in figure 4.6 in statement structure as shown in List 4.1.
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هاتف_ذكي
" موديل جي يكون الموديل إس إم"
آيفون_5
األداء الوزن صنع_بواسطة
"112 جرام"
شركة_آبل جودة_المعالجة
التقييم
"4 نجمات"
Figure 4.6. Shows the graph representation of the statements in List 4.1
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List 4.1. Expressing figure 4.6 as RDF statements
Subject Predicate Object
(smart_phone)ذكي_هاتف (is_a)يكون (iPhone 5)آيفون_5
(Apple)آبل (manufactured_by)صنع_بواسطة (iPhone 5)آيفون_5
جودة_ (performance)األداء (iPhone 5)آيفون_5
ProcessingQual)المعالجة
ity)
GSM)موديل جي إس إم (model)الموديل (iPhone 5)آيفون_5
model)
(grams 112) 112 جرام (weight)الوزن (iPhone 5)آيفون_5
(stars 4 )4 نجمات (evaluate)التقييم جودة_
(ProcessingQuality)المعالجة
For any Arabic RDF statement, the subject and the object refer to any things in
آيفون_the world, and they represent a concrete or an abstract thing. For instance, the 5
ProcessingQuality) represents) جودة_ المعالجة iPhone5) represents a concrete thing while) the abstract concept.
The second rule insists that each resource in the Arabic web must use a unique name and to do so it must use the Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). There are many advantages for the second rule. First, different users may use different names to
آيفونiPhone_5), 5) آيفون_represent the same resource. For example, using 5
These conflict .آيفون_iPhone_five) for the same resource 5) آيفون_فايف iPhone5) and) names make a problem for the agent that aggregate data about such a resource. The
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second benefit of using unique IRIs of resources is to avoid two different resources using
.(شركة آبل)and Apple (فاكهة التفاح)the same name. For instance, Apple fruit
Hash IRI or slash IRI will be used to identify a resource on the Arabic web, and
always reuse IRIs as can, and only invent a new IRI if you absolutely have to. Because of
the many difficulties to use a whole IRI, it is fine only using an Arabic word for the last
fragment of the IRI to represent any resources. The following two IRIs shows the
difference between the hash IRI and the slash IRI,
آيفون_5/ آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
List 4.2 shows the resources in List 4.1 and their unique IRI names.
List 4.2 Shows the resources in List 4.1 and their unique IRI names.
Resource IRI name
آيفون_5#آيفوني/iPhone 5) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)آيفون_5
شركة_آبل/Apple) http://www.dbpedia.org/resource)شركة_آبل
#آيفوني/smart_phone) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)هاتف_ذكي
هاتف_ذكي
جودة_ #آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com جودة_
المعالجة (ProcessingQuality)المعالجة
XML qualified name (QName) will be used that contains a prefix denoting a
namespace IRI, followed by a colon, and followed by a local name to avoid long IRIs
names of resources. The local name is written in the Arabic language. We can specify the
namespace prefixes for our example as shown in List 4.3.
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List 4.3. Shows example of namespace prefixes
Prefix Namespace #آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com آيفوني /http://www.dbpedia.org/resource الديبيديا Now, the following two full IRIs,
آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
شركة_آبل/http://www.dbpedia.org/resource
can be written respectively
آيفون_5:آيفوني
شركة_آبل:الديبيديا
List 4.4 is a re-write of the statements in List 4.1 after applying the namespace prefix.
List 4.4. Re-write of the statements in List 4.1 after applying the namespace prefix
Subject Predicate Object هاتف_ذكي:آيفوني يكون آيفون_5:آيفوني شركة_آبل:الديبيديا صنع_بواسطة آيفون_5:آيفوني جودة_ :آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني األداء المعالجة
GSM)موديل جي إس إم آيفون_5:آيفوني (model الموديل
(grams 112) 112 جرام الوزن آيفون_5:آيفوني جودة_ :آيفوني (stars 4 )4 نجمات التقييم المعالجة
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Also, in Arabic RDF, to identify predicates - the relation between the subject and the
object- it must coin IRIs instead of using Arabic strings or words. The benefits of using
an IRI for predicate (property) is like the benefits of using a IRI for resources, and it
promotes the use of Arabic shared vocabularies on the Arabic Web. List 4.5 shows the
use of IRIs to name predicates.
List 4.5. Shows the use of IRIs to name predicates
Predicate IRI name يكون#آيفوني/is_a) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)يكون صنع_بواسطة#آيفوني/manufactured_by) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)صنع_بواسطة األداء#آيفوني/performance) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)األداء الموديل#آيفوني/model) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)الموديل الوزن#آيفوني/weight) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)الوزن التقييم#آيفوني/evaluate) http://www.khalidalharthi.com)التقييم List 4.6 are RDF statements after applying the Arabic abstract model.
List 4.6. Shows RDF statements after applying the Arabic abstract model
Subject Predicate Object هاتف_ذكي:آيفوني يكون:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني شركة_آبل:الديبيديا صنع_بواسطة:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني جودة_ المعالجة:آيفوني األداء:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني
(GSM model)موديل جي إس إم الموديل:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني
(grams 112) 112 جرام الوزن:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني (stars 4 )4 نجمات التقييم:آيفوني جودة_ المعالجة:آيفوني
In Arabic RDF a Subject can be IRI (either for resources or a blank node) while
Object value can be literal strings or IRI (either resource or a blank node). However, the
99
Predicate must be IRI named resource. List 4.7 shows examples of literal strings, IRI
named resource, and a blank node.
List 4.7 Shows examples of literal strings, IRI named resource, and a blank node.
(grams 112) 112 جرام Literal string
آيفون_5#آيفوني/IRI named resource http://www.khalidalharthi.com
جودة_ المعالجة#آيفوني/Blank node http://www.khalidalharthi.com
The following namespace prefix IRI is used to indicate a datatype of a literal
value, and this IRI can be used optionally in the RDF document to facilitate parser job to
infer how to interpret the literal value.The following namespace shows IRI that indicate
a datatype of a literal value, and the fragment of IRI have to be written in Arabic
language, and differs based on the datatype.
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#
Table 4.3 shows some examples of different datatype in Arabic language.
Table 4.3. Shows some examples of different datatype in Arabic language
Data type URL name
عدد_صحيح#intger) http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema)عدد صحيح
عدد_كسري#float) http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema) عدد كسري
سلسلة_نصية#string) http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema)سلسلة نصية
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Optionally, a datatype tag can be attached with a literal value, and the following two
examples show how a datatype tag can be attached with a literal value.
>GSM model)") جي إس إم موديل"
<سلسلة_نصية#http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
>grams)" 112)112 جرام"
<عدد_كسري#http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
It is known that the blank node which does not have a IRI as its name denotes a
resource (either a subject or an object), and it represents a specific resource. Also, in
Arabic RDF documents, it must be assigned as a local identifier. The following three
: as shown in List 4.8 ( مجهول:_ )statements have expressed this fact about a Blank node
a ( قيم_بواسطة:آيفوني) is reviewed by ( آيفون_5:آيفوني) آيفون_The 5
specific resource in the world. This resource has a property called
it also has a property ;"سعد" givenname) whose value is)االسم_األول:األصدقاء
."علي" father_name)whose value is)اسم_األب:األصدقاء called
List 4.8. A blank node example in Arabic web
Resource Property Value
(anonymous) مجهول:_ (reviewed_by) قيم_بواسطة:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني
"سعد" (givenname)االسم_األول:األصدقاء (anonymous) مجهول:_
"علي" (father_name)اسم_األب:األصدقاء (anonymous) مجهول:_
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اسم_األب:األصدقاء given_name) and)االسم_األول:األصدقاء
All these .األصدقاء ,father_name)are QNames, and they use a namespace, namely) two predicates are used to indicate a person’s first and last names. The best benefit of
is providing a way to represent and model the n-ary (العقدة المجهولة) blank node relationship in Arabic RDF model. Figure 4.7 shows the graph representation of the statements in List 4.6 together with List 4.8.
102
هاتف_ذكي:آيفوني
" موديل جي إس إم" يكون:آيفوني الموديل:آيفوني
آيفون_5:آيفوني صنع_بواسطة:آيفوني
شركة_آبل:الديبيديا
قيم_بواسطة:آيفوني األداء:آيفوني الوزن:آيفوني
"112 جرام"
جودة_المعالجة:آيفوني
االسم_األول:األصدقاء اسم_األب:األصدقاء التقييم:آيفوني
"سعد" "علي"
"4 نجمات" Figure 4.7 shows the graph representation of the statements in List 4.6 together
with List 4.8
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4.2.2.2 Arabic RDF Serialization: Arabic RDF/XML
After defining an abstract and conceptual framework for describing the resources on the Arabic web, a vision serialization syntax for creating concrete RDF models to write RDF documents is needed. An XML syntax for that purpose will be defined, and that serialization will be called Arabic RDF/XML. The goal of Arabic RDF/XML is to change the Arabic RDF graph to an XML document.
First off, Arabic RDF vocabulary terms need to be defined which share the same namespace prefix to describe the resources on the Arabic web. The IRIs of terms in this
Arabic RDF vocabulary all share the same following IRI:
#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org
is associated with the above IRI string. List 4.9 shows :أرديف The IRI prefix the Arabic terms in Arabic RDF vocabulary
List 4.9. Arabic Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms
,نوع_التحليل:أرديف ,عن:أرديف ,وصف:أرديف ,آر_دي_إف:أرديف
,رقم_العقدة:أرديف ,عنصر:أرديف ,مصدر:أرديف
,سلسلة:أرديف ,نوع_البيانات:أرديف ,رمز_التعريف:أرديف
,عالقة:أرديف ,المسند_إليه:أرديف,بيان:أرديف ,سلة:أرديف
.قيمة:أرديف,نوع:أرديف ,المسند:أرديف
x indicates an Arabic term from the Arabic RDF vocabulary, where x is :أرديف The
such as the :أرديف one of the above Arabic RDF vocabularies concatenating with following example.
نوع البيانات:أرديف
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The following will explain each term in the Arabic RDF vocabulary terms by converting the abstract example in List 4.6 into a concrete representation i.e. the Arabic
RDF representation.
4.2.2.2 .1 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms I
Table 4.4 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms I
Term Comment
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary indicating an Arabic آر_دي_إف:أرديف
XML document representing an Arabic RDF model.
(RDF) آر_دي_إف: أرديف Line 2i means creating a
in line 7 < آر_دي_إف: أرديف/> element . The tag
indicates the end of an Arabic RDF element.
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to describe a وصف:أرديف
resource.
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary attribute used with عن:أرديف
to specify a resource that is intended to be وصف:أرديف
described (to specify the statement’s subject -the resource
XML node)
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to determine a مصدر:أرديف
resource by referring its IRI. Line 5i in List 4.10 indicates the
predicate (property) and the object ( property value) of the
tag used to represent the نوع:أرديف statement. The
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property while the property value is another resource and the
.is used to determine that resource by its IRI مصدر:أرديف
The node that is created in line 5i is called a property XML
node, and each property XML node represents a single Arabic
statement.
It is a common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to determine نوع:أرديف
the type of any given resource as shown in line 5i in List 4.10.
List 4.10 is the Arabic RDF/XML representation of the first statement in List 4.6 below.
Subject Predicate Object
هاتف_ذكي:آيفوني يكون:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني
List 4.10. Arabic RDF/XML representation of the first statement in List 4.6
1:
آر_دي_إف:أرديف> :2i
"#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org "= أرديف:2ii: xmlns
<"#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= آيفوني:xmlns :3
= عن:أرديف وصف: أرديف> :4i
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/4ii:"http://www.khalidalharthi.com
مصدر:أرديف نوع:أرديف> :5i
< وصف: أرديف/> :6
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< آر_دي_إف:أرديف/> :7
is a type of other resource آيفون_5:آيفوني Lines 4-6 mean the resource named
.هاتف_ذكي:آيفوني named
In general, the subject, predicate, and object are represented in Arabic RDF/XML as the following :
<"The subject IRI name"= عن:أرديف وصف:أرديف>
< وصف: أرديف/>
Now, we will add the second statement from List 4.6, and the second statement has the same subject as in the first statement. So, if there are two statements and the statements have the same subject, they can be combined together as shown in List 4.11.
If an object of statement uses a resource as the value of a property, and that value itself, has a property that needs a description, it must add a new a description node to explain that property. The last statement in List 4.6 is a descriptive statement for the
,of the third statement in the same list ( جودة_ المعالجة:آيفوني) value property and lines 7-11 in List 4.11 are Arabic RDF/XML representation of that RDF abstract representation.
List 4.11.Arabic RDF/XML representation of other statements in List 4.6
1:
آر_دي_إف:أرديف> :2
"#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org "= أرديف:2i: xmlns
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<"#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= آيفوني:xmlns :3
"= عن:أرديف وصف: أرديف> :4i
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/4ii:http://www.khalidalharthi.com
مصدر:أرديف نوع:أرديف > :5i
مصدر:أرديف صنع_بواسطة:آيفوني> :6i
" = مصدر:أرديف األداء: آيفوني> :7i
< وصف: أرديف/> :8
"= عن:أرديف وصف: أرديف> :9i
<" جودة_ المعالجة#آيفوني/9ii:http://www.khalidalharthi.com
< التقييم:آيفوني/> 4 نجمات< التقييم:آيفوني> :10
< وصف: أرديف/> :11
<آر_دي_إف:أرديف/> :12
Also, it is possible to represent a resource as an object by placing the description of that resource inside the property node , as shown in lines 8-13 in List 4.12.
4.2.2.2 .2 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms II
Table 4.5 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms II
Term Comment
108
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary indicating a literal قيمة:أرديف
value of a property of a statement (line 18 in List 4.12).
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary indicating the data نوع_البيانات:أرديف
or ,عدد صحيح ,سلسلة نصية type of a literal value such as
.(line 14 and line 18 in List 4.12) تاريخ
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary that explains the نوع_التحليل:أرديف
element Arabic RDF how to parse and interpret
predicate content.
and we have عن:أرديف does not include an attribute such as <وصف: أرديف> If
attribute, then a resource is a نوع_التحليل:أرديف determined the parse type by blank node.
–used an anonymous resource (lines 17 الوزن:آيفوني In list 4.12 , the predicate
21) as a property value, and this anonymous resource contains two properties. The first
and its value is 112. The second one is قيمة:أرديف one is the
وحدات_القياس property which falls under the وحدة_القياس:وحدات_القياس namespace (line 4), and its value is another resource
. (جم#وحدة_القياس/http://www.example.org)
Also, It is preferable to use XML entities to improve the readability (abbreviating the long IRI) of the Arabic RDF document and to do so we can do the following:
نوع_الوثيقة!>
109
نوع_البيانات الكائن!>] آر_دي_إف:أرديف
<[<" سلسلة_نصية#http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema "
,associated with the namespace IRI نوع_البيانات Now, the reference name
(to represent the datatype IRI (line 14 and 18 ;نوع_البيانات& Therefore, we can use
List 4.12. Arabic RDF/XML representation of other statements in List 4.6
1:
نوع_الوثيقة!> :2i
نوع_البيانات الكائن!>] آر_دي_إف:أرديف :2ii
<[<" نوع_البيانات#2iii: " http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
آر_دي_إف:أرديف> :2
"#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org "= أرديف:xmlns :3
"#وحدة_القياس/http://www.example.org"=وحدات_القياس:xmlns :4
<"#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= آيفوني:xmlns :5
وصف: أرديف> :6i
"= عن:أرديف :6ii
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
مصدر:أرديف نوع:أرديف > :7i
صنع_بواسطة:آيفوني> :8i
< األداء: آيفوني> :9
"= عن:أرديف وصف: أرديف> :10i
<" جودة_ المعالجة#آيفوني/10ii:http://www.khalidalharthi.com
110
< التقييم:آيفوني/> 4 نجمات< التقييم:آيفوني> :11
< وصف: أرديف/> :12
< األداء: آيفوني/> :13
”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف الموديل:آيفوني> :14i
<”سلسلة_نصية;نوع_البيانات&:14ii
< الموديل: آيفوني/> جي إس إم موديل :15
< الوزن:آيفوني> :16
< وصف:أرديف> :17
<”سلسلة_نصية;نوع_البيانات& ”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف قيمة:أرديف> :18
< قيمة:أرديف/>112 :19
وحدة_القياس:وحدات_القياس> :20i
< وصف: أرديف/> :21
< الوزن:آيفوني/> :22
< وصف: أرديف/> :23
<آر_دي_إف:أرديف/> :24
4.2.2.2 .3 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms III
111
Table 4.6 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms III
Term Comment
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to assign a رقم_العقدة:أرديف
blank node identifier to a blank node to allow the blank
node to be referenced from any other part of the same
document.
A common Arabic RDF attribute term used to identify a رمز_التعريف:أرديف
resource described in RDF document instead of using
This done via giving a relative Arabic .عن:أرديف
RDF IRI reference equivalent to # concatenated with the
.attribute value رمز_التعريف:أرديف xml:base A term that sets the base IRI for resolving relative RDF
IRI references.
with مصدر:أرديف it can use ,عن:أرديف Instead of an
attribute if we use a blank node in a statement which uses a رقم_العقدة:أرديف
it can use a property ,مصدر:أرديف blank node as its subject. In addition, instead of an
attribute if we use a blank node in a statement رقم_العقدة:أرديف element with which uses a blank node as its object. List 4.13 shows a rewritten Arabic/RDF syntax of
.with blank nodes رقم_العقدة:أرديف line (16-23) in List 4.12 using
رقم_العقدة:أرديف List 4.13. Shows the use of
112
اختر االسم )any name ex:10(“ = رقم_العقدة:أرديف الوزن:آيفوني> :1i
< وصف:أرديف/> :2
< ”10”=رقم_العقدة:أرديف وصف:أرديف> :3
<”سلسلة_نصية;نوع_البيانات& ”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف قيمة:أرديف> :4
< قيمة:أرديف/>112 :5
وحدة_القياس:وحدات_القياس> :6
< وصف: أرديف/> :7
((حاوية) Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms IV (Arabic RDF Containers 4. 4.2.2.2
Table 4.7 Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms IV
Term Comment
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary to allow a resource سلة:أرديف
representing a group of resources or literals, and this
keyword to be used when the order is not important and
may contain duplicate values.
A common Arabic RDF vocabulary to allow a resource سلسلة:أرديف
representing a group of resources or literals, and this
keyword to be used when the order is important.
A Common Arabic RDF vocabulary that indicates a عنصر:أرديف
member (item) of a list or group.
113
iPhone5) based on the three following) آيفون_Suppose we want to review the 5
criteria:
.(نظام_التشغيل) Operating system
. (التصميم) Design
.(جودة_الكاميرا) Camera quality
,that contains members (حاوية) We can do that by using the concept of the container
each member can be either a resource or a literal. There are two types of containers
while سلسلة:أرديف and سلة:أرديف: provided by Arabic RDF/XML
,is used to identify the members of this container resource. For example عنصر:أرديف
or سلة:أرديف we can model the three above review criteria by using
.as shown in List 4.14 سلسلة:أرديف
سلسلة:أرديف and سلة:أرديف List 4.14. Shows the use of
1:
نوع_الوثيقة!> :2i
نوع_البيانات الكائن!>] آر_دي_إف:أرديف :2ii
<[<" نوع_البيانات#2iii: " http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
آر_دي_إف:أرديف> :3
"#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org "= أرديف:xmlns :4
<"#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= آيفوني:xmlns :5
"= عن:أرديف وصف: أرديف> :6i
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/6ii:http://www.khalidalharthi.com
114
< بنود_التقييم:آيفوني> :7
< وصف:أرديف> :8
نوع:أرديف > :9
:10
:11
:12
< وصف: أرديف/> :13
< بنود_التقييم:آيفوني/> :14
< وصف: أرديف/> :15
<آر_دي_إف:أرديف/> :16
((تجميع) Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms V (Arabic RDF Collections 5. 4.2.2.2
since (حاوية) solves the problem of containers (تجميع) Arabic RDF collection containers cannot exclude other resources from being members. Therefore,
attribute allows and specify particular resources as "تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف
attribute can be used as shown in "تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف members. The
, (التصميم)design ,(نظام_التشغيل) List 4.15 to specify only the operating system
آيفون_to be used as criteria to review 5 (جودة_الكاميرا) camera quality
(iPhone5).
"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف List 4.15. Shows the use of
1:
115
نوع_الوثيقة!> :2i
نوع_البيانات الكائن!>] آر_دي_إف:أرديف :2ii
<[<" نوع_البيانات#2iii: " http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
آر_دي_إف:أرديف> :3
"#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org "= أرديف:xmlns :4
<"#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= آيفوني:xmlns :5
"= عن:أرديف وصف : أرديف> :6i
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/6ii:http://www.khalidalharthi.com
<"تجميع"= نوع_التحليل:أرديف بنود_التقييم:آيفوني> :7
:8
:9
:10
< بنود_التقييم:آيفوني/> :11
< وصف: أرديف/> :12
<آر_دي_إف:أرديف/> :13
(تجسيد) Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms VI (Arabic RDF Reification 6. 4.2.2.2
Terms)
Table 4.8. Arabic RDF Vocabulary Terms VI
Term Comment
Common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to indicate بيان:أرديف
an Arabic RDF statement.
Common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to indicate المسند_إليه:أرديف
116
the subject in the Arabic RDF statement.
Common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to indicate عالقة:أرديف
the predicate in the Arabic RDF statement.
Common Arabic RDF vocabulary used to indicate المسند:أرديف
the object in the Arabic RDF statement.
Now, we will explain the last terms of a common Arabic RDF vocabulary. The above four terms are used to describe Arabic RDF statements. For instance, for a particular Arabic RDF statement, sometimes we need to record information about the creator and the data issue of such a statement as shown in List 4.16 that represent the following statement:
شركة_آبل:الديبيديا صنع_بواسطة:آيفوني آيفون_5:آيفوني
Terms (تجسيد) List 4.16. Arabic RDF Reification
بيان:أرديف نوع:أرديف بيان_1:آيفوني
آيفون_5:آيفوني المسند_إليه:أرديف بيان_1:آيفوني
صنع_بواسطة:آيفوني عالقة:أرديف بيان_1:آيفوني
شركة_آبل:الديبيديا المسند:أرديف بيان_1:آيفوني
is an IRI of the statement that is being بيان_1:آيفوني In List 4.16
terms. So, the first statement states the (تجسيد) described by Arabic RDF Reification
is an Arabic RDF statement. The second بيان_1 :آيفوني resource identified by statement states that the subject of this Arabic RDF statement is given by the
while the third statement states the predicate of this RDF آيفون_5:آيفونيresource
117
The last statement states that the . صنع_بواسطة:آيفوني statement is identified by
.شركة_آبل:الديبيديا object of the statement is given by
4.2.2.2 .7 Using Arabic Core Metadata Initiative (ACMI) in RDF Documents
Since the main goal of ACMI vocabulary is to provide metadata terms in the
Arabic language that are suitable for simple and generic Arabic resource descriptions. As
ACMI terms have already illustrated, it is beneficial to use ACMI terms as pre-defined
Arabic RDF vocabulary. It is strongly recommended to use ACMI predicates as much as
can be when someone wants to use RDF to describe such a document, or describe part of
creator) predicates can be) مؤلف date) and) اترخي_الانشاء ,an RDF document. For example
used to describe such a document, or part of an RDF document as shown in List 4.17.
List 4.17. Using ACMI in RDF Documents
1:
نوع_الوثيقة!> :2i
نوع_البيانات الكائن!>] آر_دي_إف:أرديف :2ii
<[<" نوع_البيانات#2iii: " http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
آر_دي_إف:أرديف> :3
"#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org "= أرديف:xmlns :4
<"#مفردة_وصفية /http://www.acmi.org "= مفردة_وصفية:xmlns :5
<"www.khalidalharthi.com"= عن:أرديف وصف:أرديف> :6
< مؤلف: مفردة_وصفية/>خالد الحارثي< مؤلف:مفردة_وصفية> :7
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”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف تاريخ_االنشاء:مفردة_وصفية> :8
< تاريخ_االنشاء: مفردة_وصفية/>2013-11-30<”تاريخ;نوع_البيانات&
< وصف:أرديف/> :9
<آر_دي_إف:أرديف/> :11
4.2.2.3 Benefits of Using Standard Arabic RDF Vocabulary
There are many advantages of using a Standard Arabic RDF Vocabulary. First, solving the problem of “the same word” has different meanings and vice versa different words can have the same concept. Also, if there is no Standard Arabic RDF Vocabulary, the distributed information will remain isolated. Moreover, with shared Standard Arabic
RDF Vocabulary, it is possible and easy to implement machine inferencing.
(تعريف المفاهيم)Arabic Web Ontology 4.2.3
After defining the vision of Arabic RDF and its vocabulary terms, it is needed now to define the vision of the most important part in the Arabic Semantic Web world:
Arabic ontology. Arabic RDF does not provide any means to record semantics ( meaning) without ontology. The fact that ontology plays a critical role is well known in the world of semantic web. Without defining resources and the relation between them for machines, machines cannot understand and read what they are presented with. Therefore, in this section the principles of Arabic Web Ontology and its vocabulary terms will be defined, also how Arabic Web Ontology fits with Arabic RDF in the Arabic Semantic Web world.
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4.2.3.1 Arabic Web Ontology and its Benefits
An Arabic Web Ontology is a common set of Arabic terms which are used to describe a specific domain ( an area of knowledge). The definition of Arabic Web
Ontology indicates that there are many things needed to build an ontology. First, we need to specify an area of knowledge (domain). Second, we have to define terms (classes, or concepts) and the relationships between these terms in a hierarchical structure. Third, an ontology for any area of knowledge also requires a group of terms (properties) to explain relationships, features, and attributes of the concepts (classes). The following are the benefits of Arabic Ontology:
Arabic Web Ontology offers a method to encode knowledge to allow the
machines to understand what they are presented with.
Arabic Web Ontology will offer a common vocabulary for a specific
domain.
Arabic Web Ontology is used to define a vocabulary to structure the
Arabic RDF documents which are created.
Arabic Web Ontology promotes and encourages reuse domain
knowledge.
Therefore, I will propose an Arabic Web Ontology language (AOWL) which is similar to OWL- the most popular language for creating ontologies- to fit Arabic web data needs. Arabic Web Ontology language follows the OWL approach. But, it has its own Arabic vocabulary terms (constructs), and the purpose of AOWL vocabulary terms to describe classes and properties within a specific domain on Arabic web.
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الحقائق أو ) Basic Notions of Arabic Web Ontology: Axioms 4.2.3.2
(التعبير أو التصريح) Expression ,(الكيان) Entity ,(البديهيات
Arabic Web Ontology is similar to other ontology in the structure, but it shares some differences and characteristics of the nature of its axioms, entities, and how these entities are related together to form expressions. So, Arabic Web Ontology contains a
and each axiom carries a piece of ,( الحقائق أو البديهيات ) collection of axioms knowledge. The axiom in Arabic Web Ontology is similar to statement in Arabic RDF.
An axiom may involve classes (categories), properties (relations), or individuals
iPhone5) is an example of the individual. Any components of the) آيفون_objects). The 5)
The .(الكيان) axiom whether it is a class, property, or individual is called Entity
are combinations of different entities to form (التعبير أو التصريح) Expressions descriptions about new entities.
4.2.3.3 Arabic Web Ontology Language (AOWL) Vocabulary Terms
In this section, the vision the syntax of AOWL will be defined, and AOWL vocabulary terms will be proposed and used to build any domain vocabulary such as
domain will be used (آيفوني)domain vocabulary. The MyiPhone (آيفوني)MyiPhone as an example for better understanding.
The goal is to represent this phone domain by AOWL. AOWL terms will be identified by pre-defined IRIs and all these IRIs share the following leading string:
#آول/http://www.aowl.org/2013/03
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and it is used in Arabic ,:آول and this IRI prefix is associated with namespace prefix
,The AOWL terms are classified into classes.آول RDF/XML format with the prefix properties, others terms.
4.2.3.3.1 AOWL Vocabulary Terms I
Table 4.9. AOWL Vocabulary Terms I
AOWL Term Comment
.A common AOWL term used to describe anything شيء:آول
and is (شيء) Anything described by RDF is called thing
is the شيء:آول.شيء:آول instance of the class
root class and all other classes are subclasses of class
. شيء:آول
in (فئة) A common AOWL term used to define a class فئة:آول
a vocabulary.
A common AOWL term used to define sub-classes فئة_فرعية_من:آول
.(فئة فرعية من)
In list 4.18 lines 7-8 says that this resource
is a class. However, lines ,هاتف#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
8-11 says that the following resource
is a class and at the same جوال#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com time sub_class of the resource:
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.هاتف#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
Note: A class may be a sub-class of more than one class.
فئة_فرعية_من:آول and فئة:آول List 4.18. Using
1:
آر_دي_إف:أرديف> :2
"#أرديف/http://www.ardf.org "= أرديف:xmlns :3
"#آول/http://www.aowl.org/2013/03 "= آول:xmlns :4
<"#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= آيفوني:xmlns :5
<"#آيفوني/xml:base=" http://www.khalidalharthi.com :6
عن:أرديف فئة:آول> :7i
<"هاتف#آيفوني/7ii:="http://www.khalidalharthi.com
<فئة:آول/> :8
عن:أرديف فئة:آول> :9i
<"جوال#آيفوني/9ii:="http://www.khalidalharthi.com
:10
<فئة:آول/> :11
<آر_دي_إف:أرديف/> :12
4.2.3.3.2 AOWL Vocabulary Terms II
Table 4.10. AOWL Vocabulary Terms II
AOWL Term Comment
A common Arabic AOWL term used to define a خاصي ة_كائن:آول
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property by connecting a resource to another resource.
A common Arabic AOWL term used to define a خاصي ة_بيانات:آول
property by connecting a resource to literal (un-typed)
or datatype (typed) value.
A common AOWL term used to specify which classes نطاق:آول
.the property being defined can be used with (فئة)
A common AOWL term used as an instance of نطاق_القيمة:آول
indicates that the values of a property خاصي ة:أرديف
are instances of one or more classes.
owned by) by) يملك_بواسطة List 4.2 shows how to define the property
جوال connecting a resource to another resource. It can only be used to describe the class
مستخدم_هاتف cell phone), and its values can only be instances of another class)
(phoneUser).
A property can be used to describe multiple classes by specifying those classes, or
is not being used. Also, the values نطاق:آول it can be used to describe any class when
.is not being used نطاق_القيمة:آول of property can be anything when
نطاق_القيمة:آول and نطاق:آول,خاصي ة_كائن List 4.19. Using
خاصي ة_كائن:آول> :1i
<"يملك_بواسطة# آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= عن:أرديف :1ii
:2
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:3
< خاصي ة_كائن:آول/> :4
model) by connecting a) الموديل List 4.20 shows how to define a property
which is used to define a خاصي ة_بيانات:آول resource to the (typed) value by using property by connecting a resource to a literal (un-typed) or datatype (typed) value.
خاصي ة_بيانات:آول List 4.20. Using
خاصي ة_بيانات:آول> :1i
آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= عن:أرديف :1ii
<"الموديل#
:2
"= مصدر:أرديف نطاق_القيمة:آول> :3i
<خاصي ة_بيانات:آول/> :4
4.2.3.3.3 AOWL Vocabulary Terms III
Table 4.11. AOWL Vocabulary Terms III
AOWL Term Comment
A common Arabic RDF term used to state نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول
such a resource does not have a specific
resource for a specific property.
A common Arabic RDF term used to state نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول
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such a resource does not have a specific value
for a specific property.
A common AOWL term used with المصدر_للكائن:آول
or نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول
to نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول
specify an individual source .
A common AOWL term used with الخاصي ة_المستهدفة:آول
or نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول
to نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول
specify a target property.
A common AOWL term used with الكائن_المستهدف:آول
or نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول
to نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول
specify a target object.
A common AOWL term used with القيمة_المستهدفة:آول
or نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول
to نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول
specify a target value.
,المصدر_للكائن:آول ,نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول The
terms are used الكائن_المستهدف:آول and,الخاصي ة_المستهدفة:آول
my name), does not own any) خالد together to state the fact that the resource, Khalid
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iPhone5) resource as shown in List 4.21. The)آيفون_instance of the 5
,المصدر_للكائن: آول is used with the نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول
terms to state القيمة_المستهدفة: آول and ,الخاصي ة_المستهدفة: آول
iPhone4) does not have a specific value for a)آيفونthat one resource 4
.camera resolution) property of 8 mega pixels, as shown in List 4.22) دقة_الكاميرا
نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول List 4.21 Using
"=عن:أرديف مستخدم_هاتف:آيفوني> :1i
<"خالد#آيفوني/1ii:http://www.khalidalharthi.com
< مستخدم_هاتف: آيفوني/> :2
عن:أرديف جوال_ذكي: آيفوني> :3i
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/3ii:="http://www.khalidalharthi.com
< جوال_ذكي: آيفوني/> :4
< نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول> :5
= مصدر:أرديف المصدر_للكائن:آول> :6i
:7
= مصدر:أرديف الكائن_المستهدف:آول> :8i
< نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_كائن:آول/> :9
نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول List 4.22 Using
< نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول> :1
127
"= مصدر:أرديف المصدر_للكائن:آول> :2i
:3
”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف القيمة_المستهدفة:آول> :4
5:8
< القيمة_المستهدفة:آول/> :6
<نقض_توكيد_خاصي ة_بيانات:آول/> :7
4.2.3.3.4 AOWL Vocabulary Terms IV
Table 4.12. AOWL Vocabulary Terms IV
AOWL Term Comment
A common Arabic AOWL term used to define a plain حرفية:آول
or untyped value.
A common Arabic AOWL class term used to indicate نوع_البيانات:آول
the datatype of a resource or value.
class to define the property حرفية:آول List 4.23 shows how we use the
.(قيمة ليس ال نوع محدد) model) whose value can be any string)الموديل
حرفية:آول List 4.23 Using
خاصي ة_بيانات:آول> :1i
<"الموديل# آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= عن:أرديف :1ii
:2
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"= مصدر:أرديف نطاق_القيمة:آول> :3i
< خاصي ة_بيانات:آول/>:4
It is recommended to provide typed values as you can by XML Schema, and it is possible to use the datatype IRI directly in the AOWL or Arabic RDF without stating that it represents a datatype. However, it is recommended to declare that a such datatype
IRI represents a such datatype, as shown in List 4.24.
نوع_البيانات:آول List 4.24 Using
خاصي ة_بيانات:آول> :1i
<"الموديل# آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= عن:أرديف :1ii
:2
#http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"= مصدر:أرديف نطاق_القيمة:آول> :3
< خاصي ة_بيانات:آول/> :4
نوع_البيانات:آول> :5i
عن:أرديف:5ii
4.2.3.3.5 AOWL Vocabulary Terms V
Table 4.13. AOWL Vocabulary Terms V
AOWL Term Comment
A common Arabic AOWL term used to indicate another انظر_أيضا:آول
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resource which provides more information about a
particular resource.
A common Arabic AOWL term used to indicate the معر ف_بواسطة:آول
primary source of information about a particular
resource.
-A common Arabic AOWL term that offers human تعليق:آول
readable information (comment) about the property or
class that is being defined.
A common Arabic AOWL term indicating that the two نفس:آول
IRI references (two individuals ) refer to the same
resource.
A common Arabic AOWL term indicating that the two يختلف_عن:آول
IRI references (two individuals ) are different resources.
نفس:آول So, it is the opposite term of
A common Arabic AOWL term indicating that all الجميع_يختلف:آول
individuals included in the list are all different from each
other.
A common Arabic AOWL term used with أعضاء_مختلفة:آول
term to list that all الجميع_يختلف_عن:آول
individuals are different from each other.
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As shown in List 4.25, line 3 states that there is additional information about the resource identified by this IRI
at another resource آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com identified via the following IRI:
is معر ف_بواسطة:آول ,Also .آيفون_http://dbpedia.org/resource/5
used to معر ف_بواسطة:آول the difference just ,انظر_أيضا:آول quite similar to
تعليق :آول .indicate the primary source of information about a particular resource used to offer a comment about a property or class that is being defined as shown in List
4.26.
انظر_أيضا:آول List 4.25. Using
وصف: أرديف> :1i
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com"= عن:أرديف :1ii
نوع:أرديف> :2i
انظر_أيضا:آول> :3i
<وصف:أرديف/> :4
تعليق:آول List 4.26. Using
خاصي ة_بيانات:آول> :1i
آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= عن:أرديف :1ii
<"الموديل#
< تعليق : آول>:2
131
هذه الخاصية" الموديل " تبين نوع موديل جهاز الهاتف الجوال :3
)This property “model” indicates the model of the cell phone)
< تعليق : آول/>:4
< خاصي ة_بيانات:آول/> :5
List 4.27 indicates that the following two individuals represent exactly the same resource.
آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
آيفون_http://dbpedia.org/resource/5
It Also indicates that the following two IRIs refer to different individuals:
آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
آيفون_4#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com
يختلف_عن:آول and نفس:آول List 4.27 Using
وصف: أرديف> :1i
<"آيفون_5#آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com"= عن:أرديف :1ii
نفس:آول> :2i
مصدر:أرديف يختلف_عن:آول> :3i
< وصف: أرديف/> :4
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أعضاء_مختلفة: and الجميع_يختلف: آول List 4.28 shows how to use
,(iPhone4) آيفونiPhone3) , 4) آيفونto state the following four individuals 0 آول
.iPhone5) are all different from each other) آيفونiPhone4s), and 5) آيفون4إس
أعضاء_مختلفة:آول and الجميع_يختلف:آول List 4.28. Using
< الجميع_يختلف:آول> :1
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف أعضاء_مختلفة:آول> :2
"= مصدر:أرديف آيفون: آيفوني> :3i
"= مصدر:أرديف آيفون: آيفوني> :4i
"= مصدر:أرديف آيفون: آيفوني> :5i
"= مصدر:أرديف آيفون: آيفوني> :6i
< أعضاء_مختلفة:آول/> :7
< الجميع_يختلف:آول/> :8
4.2.3.3.6 AOWL Vocabulary Terms VI
Table 4.14. AOWL Vocabulary Terms VI
AOWL Term Comment
A common AOWL term used to describe an anonymous تقييد:آول
on a (تقييد) class by specifying some restrictions
133
property. This term can be used either to make a value
constraint or a cardinality constraint .
A common AOWL term used to indicate the restricted على_الخاصي ة:آول
property .i.e. which property the restriction is applied to.
A common AOWL term used to link a restriction class جميع_القيم_من:آول
to either a class description or a data range. So, if we
used this property, the value of the restricted property
all has to come from the specified class or data range.
A common AOWL term used to link a restriction class بعض_القيم_من:آول
to either a class description or a data range, So, if we
used this property, one value at least of the restricted
property has to come from the specified class or data
range.
A common AOWL term used to link a restriction class له_قيمة:آول
to a value( either an individual or a data value)
A common AOWL term allowing a class to relate to مع_نفسها:آول
itself by some property.
From now on, I will be using some other domain examples in addition to the
MyiPhone domain example for the purpose of better understanding of the AOWL
, تقييد:آول vocabulary. List 4.29 shows an example on how we can use the
terms.So, as shown in List 4.7 جميع_القيم_من:آول and ,على_الخاصي ة:آول
134
term is used to describe an anonymous class by specifying some تقييد:آول the
جميع_القيم_من:آول father), and by the) األب on a property (تقييد) restrictions
property has to come from the instances of the class األب term, the values for the
. (human male) إنسان_ذكر
جميع_القيم_من:آول and,على_الخاصي ة:آول ,تقييد:آول List 4.29. Using
<تقييد:آول>:1
:2
:3
<تقييد:آول/>:4
بعض_القيم_من:آول and ,على_الخاصي ة:آول , تقييد:آول In List 4.30 the
parent) who is) يملك_والدين terms are used to define a class which has at least one
:an engineer (مهندس)
بعض_القيم_من:آول and,على_الخاصي ة:آول , تقييد:آول List 4.30. Using
<تقييد:آول>:1
:2
:3
<تقييد:آول/>:4
له_قيمة:آول and ,على_الخاصي ة:آول , تقييد:آول In List 4.31 also the
which has the value (األشياء_الحمراء) terms are used to define a class of red things
.( color) اللون red ) on the property) أحمر
135
له_قيمة:آول and ,على_الخاصي ة:آول , تقييد:آول List 4.31. Using
فئة:آول> :1i
<" األشياء_الحمراء# http://www.things.com"= عن:أرديف :1ii
< فئة_فرعية_من:آول> :2i
<تقييد:آول>:2ii
:3
:4
<تقييد:آول/>:5
< فئة_فرعية_من:آول/> :6
< فئة:آول/> :7
a)المنتحر is used to describe a class مع_نفسها:آول List 4.32 shows how
has) القاتل person who committing suicide) that is related to itself by killed ) property.
مع_نفسها:آول List 4.32. Using
<"المنتحر#"=عن:أرديف فئة:آول>:1
<فئة_مساوية:آول>:2
<تقييد:آول>:3
:4
نوع_البيانات:أرديف مع_نفسها:آول>:5i
صحيحة <"بوليان;نوع_البيانات&"=:5ii
< مع_نفسها:آول/>:6
136
< تقييد:آول/>:7
< فئة_مساوية:آول/>:8
< فئة:آول/>:9
4.2.3.3.7 AOWL Vocabulary Terms VII
Table 4.15. AOWL Vocabulary Terms VII
AOWL Term Comment
A common AOWL term used to link a restriction class تعداد_أعلى:آول
to a data value, and the datatype of data value must be
A .(عدد موجب صحيح) a non negative integer
constraint تعداد_أعلى:آول restriction containing an
describes a class of all individuals that have at most X
values on the property concerned.
It is a common AOWL term used to link a restriction تعداد_أدنى:آول
class to a data value, and the datatype of data value
A .(عدد موجب صحيح) must be a non negative integer
constraint تعداد_أدنى:آول restriction containing an
describes a class of all individuals that have at least X
values on the property concerned.
It is a common AOWL term used to link a restricted تعداد:آول
class to a data value, and the datatype of data value must
A .(عدد موجب صحيح) be a non negative integer
137
constraint تعداد:آول restriction containing an
describes a class of all individuals that have exactly X
values on the property concerned.
There is another method to define a class in Arabic Ontology by adding cardinality restrictions on properties and the purpose of that is to constrain the cardinality of a property based on the class. As shown in List 4.33, a class called
عدد_الحكام referee) of a soccer game is defined, and it has a property called) حكم
تعداد_أدنى:آول and تعداد_أعلى:آول numbers of referee). And the) terms are used together to specify a range which says that the total number of referees in a soccer game on the field should be at least 3, but cannot be more than
the number of elements of) تعداد: آول Also, as shown in List 4.34 the .5 something)term is used to indicate that there can only be one goal keeper
.for any team in a soccer game حارس_المرمى
تعداد_أدنى:آول and تعداد_أعلى:آول List 4.33. Using
فئة:آول> :1i
<" كرة_القدم# http://www.sportgames.com"= عن:أرديف :1ii
< فئة_فرعية_من:آول> :2
<تقييد:آول>:3
:4
”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف تعداد_أعلى:آول> :5
138
<تعداد_أعلى:آول/>5<" عدد_صحيح_موجب;نوع_البيانات&
”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف تعداد_أدنى:آول>:6
<تعداد_أعلى:آول/>0<" عدد_صحيح_موجب;نوع_البيانات&
<تقييد:آول/>:7
تعداد:آول List 4.34. Using
فئة:آول> :1i
<" كرة_القدم# http://www.sportgames.com"= عن:أرديف :1ii
< فئة_فرعية_من:آول> :2
<تقييد:آول>:3
:4
”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف تعداد:آول>:5
<تعداد_أعلى:آول/>1<" عدد_صحيح_موجب;نوع_البيانات&
<تقييد:آول/>:6
4.2.3.3.8 AOWL Vocabulary Terms VIII
Table 4.16. AOWL Vocabulary Terms VIII
AOWL Term Comment
A common AOWL term used to link a class to a list of تقاطع:آول
statement describes تقاطع:آول class descriptions. An
a class for which the class extension contains precisely
139
those individuals that are members of the class extension
of all class descriptions in the list.
A common AOWL term used to link a class to a list of اتحاد:آول
statement describes اتحاد:آول class descriptions. An
an anonymous class for which the class extension
contains those individuals that occur in at least one of the
class extensions of the class descriptions in the list.
A common AOWL term used to build a new class by اتحاد_مختلف:آول
combining (union) disjoint classes.
A common AOWL term used to link a class to precisely متمم:آول
used to include متمم:آول one class description. An
all individuals from different class, and these individuals
do not belong to the described class.
AOWL also allows us to define classes by using set operators, and it has some
اتحاد:آول ,( intersection of) تقاطع:آول operator terms to do so. These terms are
complement) متمم:آول disjoint union of ), and) اتحاد_مختلف:آول ,( union of)
جوال كاميرا used to define a class called تقاطع:آول of ). As shown in List 4.35
cell Phone) class and an anonymous) جوال mobile camera ). It is the intersection of)
camera), and this property has the value) كاميرا class which has a property called
.(available) متوفرة
تقاطع:آول List 4.35. Using
140
.http://www"= عن:أرديف فئة:آول> :1i
<"جوال_كاميرا#آيفوني/1ii:khalidalharthi.com
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف تقاطع:آول> :2
:3
< تقييد:آول> :4
:5
”= نوع_البيانات:أرديف له_قيمة:آول> :6
<سلسلة_نصية;نوع_البيانات&
متوفرة :7
<له_قيمة:آول/> :8
< تقييد:آول/> :9
< فئة:آول/> :10
< فئة:آول/> :11
is used to define a class to combine the last two اتحاد:آول List 4.36 shows how
آيفون_4إس iPhone) by combining both the extension of)آيفون generations of
.iPhone5) class)آيفون_iPhone4S) class and the extension of 5)
اتحاد:آول List 4.36.Using
.http://www "= عن:أرديف فئة:آول> :1i
<"آيفون_آخر_نسختين#آيفوني/1ii:khalidalharthi.com
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف اتحاد:آول> :2
:3
:4
141
<اتحاد:آول/> :5
< فئة:آول/> :6
iPhone)class as)آيفون is used in List 4.37 to define اتحاد_مختلف:آول The term
آيفون4إس ,(iPhone4) آيفونiPhone3) , 4) آيفونa union class of the four classes 0
iPhone5) , but also indicate the fact that all these classes are) آيفونiPhone4s) , and 5)
iPhone4s) class cannot be an instance of) آيفون4إس pairwise disjoint. So, an instance of
.iPhone5) class at the same time) آيفون5
اتحاد_مختلف:آول List 4.37.Using
فئة:آول> :1
< اتحاد_مختلف:آول>:2
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف أعضاء:آول> :3
:4
:5
:6
:7
<أعضاء:آول/>:8
<اتحاد_مختلف:آول/>:9
< فئة:آول/> :10
آيفون term is used for defining a class to find any متمم:آول List 4.38 shows how
.iPhone5)instances)آيفون_iPhone) instances except 5)
متمم:آول List 4.38.Using
142
<فئة:آول>:1
<متمم:آول>:2
:3
<متمم:آول/>:4
<فئة:آول/>:5
4.2.3.3.9 AOWL Vocabulary Terms IX
Table 4.17. AOWL Vocabulary Terms IX
AOWL Term Comment
A common AOWL term used for describing an واحد_من:آول
term enables a واحد_من:آول enumerated class, so
class to be described by enumerating its instances.
A common AOWL term used to list members of a أعضاء:آول
group.
A common AOWL term used to state that two classes فئة_مساوية:آول
are equivalent classes to each other and have the same
instances.
A common AOWL term used to specify two classes فئة_مختلفة_مع:آول
are disjoint and not related .
A common AOWL term used to specify that all classes الجميع_فئة_مختلفة:آول
are disjoint and not related to others .
143
There are also other ways to define a class, by enumerating its instances, indicating that a class is equivalent to another class, and stating that a class is disjoint
continents) class and its) القارات from another class. As shown in List 4.38 the
one of) AOWL term. No other) واحد_من:آول instances are defined by using
except for the instances that are , القارات individuals can be included in the class defined in the List.
واحد_من:آول List 4.39.Using
عن:أرديف فئة:آول>:1i
<"القارات/1ii:="http://dbpedia.org/resource
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف واحد_من:آول> :2
:3
:4
:5
:6
:8
:9
:10
<واحد_من:آول/> :11
<فئة:آول/>:12
144
iPhone_5) are) آيفون_iPhone5) and 5) آيفونThe List 4.40 shows two classes 5
(iPhone5) آيفونequivalent classes and these classes have the same instances while 5
(iPhone5) آيفونiPhone4) class . 5) آيفونclass is different and not related with the 4
.iPhone4) classes do not have the same instances) 4آيفون and
فئة_مختلفة_مع and فئة_مساوية:آول List 4.40.Using
فئة:آول> :1i
<"آيفونhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/5 "= عن:أرديف :1ii
:2
:3
< فئة:آول/> :4
,(iPhone4) آيفونiPhone3) , 4) آيفونThe List 4.41 shows that the four classes 0
iPhone5) are disjoint classes and not related to) آيفونiPhone4s) , and 5) آيفون4إس each other.
الجميع_فئة_مختلفة:آول List 4.41.Using
الجميع_فئة_مختلفة:آول> :1
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف أعضاء:آول> :2
:3
:4
:5
:6
<أعضاء:آول/>:7
<الجميع_فئة_مختلفة:آول/> :8
145
4.2.3.3.10 AOWL Vocabulary Terms X
Table 4.18. AOWL Vocabulary Terms X
AOWL Term Comment
A common AOWL logical property term used to خاصي ة_متماثلة:آول
describe a symmetric property. So, if there is a
property P connecting resource X to resource Y,
then resource Y is also connected to resource X by
the same property.
A common AOWL logical property term used to خاصي ة_غير_متماثلة:آول
describe an asymmetric property. So, if there is a
property P connecting resource X to resource Y,
then resource Y never connects to resource X by the
same property.
A common AOWL logical property term used for خاصي ة_متعدية:آول
defining a transitive property, so if resource X is
connected to resource Y by property P, and resource
Y is connected to resource Z by the same property,
then resource X is also connected to resource Y by
property P.
A common AOWL functional property term used to تفرد:آول
146
specify at most only one (unique) value for a
property for any given instance.
A common AOWL property term used to define an معكوس:آول
inverse relation between properties.
A common AOWL term , and the opposite of معكوس_التفرد:آول
نطاق:آول term. So, for a specific تفرد:آول
نطاق_القيمة:آول value, the value of the
property must be unique .
A common AOWL term used to describe a reflexive خاصي ة_عكسية:آول
property which relates an individual to itself.
A common AOWL term used to describe an خاصي ة_غير_عكسية:آول
irreflexive property which does not relate an
individual to itself.
A common AOWL term used to specify that two خاصي ة_مختلفة_مع:آول
properties are disjoint and not related .
A common AOWL term used to specify all الجميع_خاصي ة_مختلفة:آول
properties are disjoint and not related to others .
A common AOWL term used to define a property خاصي ة_تصريح_متسلسل:آول
as a chain of object properties that connect
resources.
147
إنسان friend) is defined as) صديق As shown in List 4.42 a symmetric property
(human) class, and if human X is friend of human Y, then human Y is friend of human
X.
خاصي ة_متماثلة:آول List 4.42. Using
خاصي ة_متماثلة:آول> :1i
<"صديق/http://dbpedia.org/resource"= عن:أرديف :1ii
:2
:3
<خاصي ة_متماثلة:آول/> :4
owned_by) property is defined as asymmetric property, so a )يملك_بواسطة
مستخدم_هاتف Phone user), but a) مستخدم_هاتف phone) is owned by a) هاتف
.phone), as shown in List 4.42) هاتف Phone user) cannot be owned_by a)
خاصي ة_غير_متماثلة:آول List 4.42. Using
<" يملك_بواسطة;آيفوني&"= عن:أرديف خاصي ة_غير_متماثلة:آول>:1
:2
:3
< خاصي ة_غير_متماثلة:آول/>:4
رقم equality) is defined for) تساوي List 4.43 shows a transitive property
(number) class, and if number X is equal to number Y, and number Y is equal to number
Z, then number X is equal to number Z.
خاصي ة_متعدية:آول List 4.43. Using
148
خاصي ة_بيانات:آول> :1i
<"تساوي/http://dbpedia.org/resource "= عن:أرديف :1ii
= مصدر:أرديف نوع:أرديف> :2i
:3
:4
<خاصي ة_بيانات:آول/> :5
father) property which has at) األب term to specify تفرد:آول List 4.44 shows the most one value.
تفرد:آول List 4.44. Using
خاصي ة_كائن:آول> :1i
<""األب/1ii: rdf:about="http://dbpedia.org/resource
= مصدر:أرديف نوع:أرديف> :2i
:3
< خاصي ة_كائن:آول/> :4
own) which is an inverse property of owned_by) ملك List 4.45 shows a property property.
معكوس:آول List 4.45. Using
خاصي ة_كائن:آول> :1i
<"يملك_بواسطة# آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= عن:أرديف :1ii
:2
149
:3
< خاصي ة_كائن:آول/> :4
خاصي ة_كائن:آول> :5i
<"يملك# آيفوني/http://www.khalidalharthi.com "= عن:أرديف :5ii
:6
"مستخدم_هاتف#"= مصدر:أرديف نطاق:آول> :7
:8
<خاصي ة_كائن:آول/> :9
.property معكوس_التفرد:آول List 4.46 has an example to illustrate
معكوس_التفرد:آول List 4.46 Using
=rdf:about خاصي ة_بيانات:آول> :1i
<" البريد_االلكتروني# آيفوني/1ii:"http://www.khalidalharthi.com
= مصدر:أرديف نوع:أرديف> :2i
:3
مصدر:أرديف نطاق_القيمة:آول> :4i
<خاصي ة_بيانات:آول/> :5
نوع_البيانات:آول> :6i
عن:أرديف:6ii
150
term is used to describe the reflexive property خاصي ة_عكسية:آول The
.knows) by stating everyone can know others as well as know his or her self)يعرف
is used to describe an irreflexive property خاصي ة_غير_عكسية:آول While
wife) which does not relate an individual to itself as shown the following)زوجة example.
own) should be ) يملك owned_by) and property )يملك_بواسطة The property defined as disjoint properties as shown in List 4.47 .
خاصي ة_مختلفة_مع:آول List 4.47 Using
<" يملك_بواسطة;آيفوني&"= عن:أرديف خاصي ة_غير_متماثلة:آول>:1
<"يملك;آيفوني&"== مصدر:أرديف خاصي ة_مختلفة_مع:آول>:2
:3
:4
< خاصي ة_غير_متماثلة:آول/>:5
has a similar format of الجميع_خاصي ة_مختلفة:آول The
) خاصيةAs shown in List 4.48 all properties (1 .الجميع_فئة_مختلفة:آول
property0)) are ) خاصيةproperty2), and 0 ) خاصيةproperty1),2 pairwise disjoint.
الجميع_فئة_مختلفة:آول List 4.48 Using
151
< الجميع_خاصي ة_مختلفة:آول>:1
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف أعضاء:آول> :2
:3
:4
:5
<أعضاء:آول/>:6
< الجميع_خاصي ة_مختلفة:آول/>:7
human:hasUncle) as a property chain which) يملك_عم:إنسان List 4.49 defines
يملك_أخ:إنسان human:hasFather) and) يملك_أب:إنسان consists of
,exist يملك_أخ:إنسان and يملك_أب:إنسان human:hasBorther); any time)
,Z يملك_أخ:إنسان Y and Y يملك_أب:إنسان exists. So, if X يملك_عم:إنسان
.Z يملك_عم:إنسان then X
خاصي ة_تصريح_متسلسل:آول List 4.49 Using
<"يملك_أب;إنسان&"= عن:أرديف خاصي ة_كائن:آول>:1
<خاصي ة_كائن:آول/>:2
<"يملك_أخ;إنسان&"= عن:أرديف خاصي ة_كائن:آول>:3
<خاصي ة_كائن:آول/>:4
"يملك_عم;إنسان&"= عن:أرديف وصف: أرديف>:5
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف خاصي ة_تصريح_متسلسل:آول>:6
:7
:8
<خاصي ة_تصريح_متسلسل:آول/>:9
152
<وصف: أرديف/>:10
4.2.3.3.11 AOWL Vocabulary Terms XI
Table 4.19. AOWL Vocabulary Terms XI
AOWL Term Comment
A common AOWL term used to indicate that each مفتاح:آول
named instance of a particular class is uniquely
identified by a property or a set of properties.
As shown in List 4.50, for MyiPhone ontology, it can define
MyiPhone: reviewerID)property as the key for)معرف_ناقد:آيفوني
phoneUser) class. Therefore, The function of) مستخدم_هاتف
MyiPhone:reviewerID)property is to uniquely identify)معرف_ناقد:آيفوني
.MyiPhone:phoneUser)instance) مستخدم_هاتف:آيفوني Key) any named)
مفتاح:آول List 4.50. Using
<"مستخدم_هاتف;آيفوني&"= عن:أرديف فئة:آول>:1
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل: أرديف تقاطع: آول>:2
عن:أرديف فئة:آول>:3i
< فئة:آول>:4
<"تجميع"=نوع_التحليل:أرديف مفتاح:آول>:5
153
:6
< مفتاح:آول/>:7
< فئة:آول/>:8
< تقاطع:آول/>:9
< فئة:آول/>:10
CHAPTER 5
Conclusion and Future Work
5.1 Conclusion
According to the research provided in this thesis, my proposal of an Arabic
Semantic Web Model capable of providing the same advantages of the current semantic web technologies, providing Arabic semantic web data, and allowing Arabic users to benefit from such technology previously unavailable to them.
Some advantages of an Arabic Semantic Web Model include applying artificial intelligence processes, competent machines able to understand what they are presented, and an organized and meaningful Arabic web data.
The components of an Arabic Semantic Web Model include graph database model used to store the information, Arabic RDF used for defining the format to represent stored Arabic data in graph databases in a machine readable format, and AOWL used to define Arabic ontologies to encode semantic meaning into Arabic web data.
Therefore, agents and applications that are built on the top of that model are capable of performing intelligent tasks such as linking, reasoning , and aggregating.
Also, my study for an Arabic Semantic Web provides a set of vocabulary terms that recommend as general metadata terms suitable for simple and generic resource descriptions on the Arabic web similar to the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set.
The model provided in this study is a pioneer model of an Arabic semantic web.
Therefore, much more work and cooperation from other interested researchers and teams
154
155
is needed to realize this model and bring it from theoretical to actual Arabic semantic web technologies, languages, tools, and applications. So, this is not the end of my work but the beginning. For the future, my plans of moving into the production stage is my next goal.
5.2 Future Work and Recommendations
1. Establishing an Arabic consortium concerned with web science and semantic
web.
2. Establishing an Arab organization similar to DCMI to develop ACMI and
concerns with general Arabic metadata.
3. Designing an Arabic markup language similar to XML to transport , share and
store data.
4. Developing an Arabic Resource Description Framework Language based on the
Arabic RDF abstract model and Arabic RDF common terms that are illustrated in
this study.
5. Developing an Arabic Web Ontology Language based on the AOWL common
terms that are illustrated in this study.
6. Developing an Arabic query language that can deal with Arabic semantic web
efficiently.
7. Developing a semantic web Framework and tools that can provide Arabic
semantic web data.
8. Providing a solution and development to the existing semantic web Framework
and tools to support an Arabic web.
156
9. Developing ontologies for each specific domain on the Arabic web such as
education ontology, sports ontology, and shopping ontology, etc.
10. Providing Arabic semantic web applications/projects similar to FOAF.
11. Building semantic search engine for Arabic web.
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