]> 2009/04/07 OpenCyc Knowledge Base Copyright© 2001-2009 Cycorp, Inc., http://www.cyc.com/, Austin, TX, USA This file contains an OWL representation of information contained in the OpenCyc Knowledge Base. The content of this OWL file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license whose text can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode. The content of this OWL file, including the OpenCyc content it represents, constitutes the "Work" referred to in the Creative Commons license. The terms of this license equally apply to, without limitation, renamings and other logically equivalent reformulations of the content of this OWL file (or portions thereof) in any natural or formal language, as well as to derivations of this content or inclusion of it in other ontologies. Mappings between OpenCyc terms and Wikipedia article names provided by Olena Medelyan and Catherine Legg, University of Waikato, NZ under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. externalID A unique, language-neutral, variable-sized identifier for a concept that can be used to refer unambiguously to that concept across OWL exports or across Cyc inference engines. label A natural-language representation for a concept that is both human readable and readable by the Cyc inference engine. These terms are not guaranteed to refer to the same concept across time but are guaranteed to be consistent within a particular OWL export. Use 'cycAnnot:externalID' for unambiguously referring to a concept across OWL exports or across Cyc inference engines. Pretty String (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwLSVCpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">prettyString</a> TERM STRING) means that STRING is the English word or expression (sequence of words) commonly used to refer to TERM. The predicate <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwLSVCpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">prettyString</a> is used by the code which generates CycL to English paraphrases, but its applicability is not restricted to this use. prettyString 2 2 2 rdfs:label label <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rdpCjwNu9QdaChuanmVyrQg" class="cyc_term">rdfs_label</a> is an imported RDFS/XML term equivalent to the Cyc term <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwLSVCpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">prettyString</a> <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViA9JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Thing</a> is the "universal collection": the collection which, by definition, contains everything there is. Every thing in the Cyc ontology -- every <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvVjaApwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Individual</a> (of any kind), every <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvl2en5wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Set_Mathematical</a>, and every <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAzJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Collection</a> -- is an instance of (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a>) <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViA9JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Thing</a>. Similarly, every collection is a subcollection of (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBDpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">genls</a>) <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViA9JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Thing</a>. Trivially, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViA9JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Thing</a> is both an instance of and a subcollection of itself, and is not a subcollection of any other collection. (Note that the above reference to "every thing in the Cyc ontology" is not meant to be limited to things actually reified in the Cyc system, but includes (e.g.) every instance -- reified or not, known or not -- of every collection recognized by Cyc.) Thing thing control character free string ControlCharacterFreeString OpenCycDefinitionalPredicate The collection of predicates considered "definitional" for the purposes of the review of #$PublicConstants being done in preparation for OpenCyc. Where CONST is a #$PublicConstant, a "definitional GAF" for CONST is any asserted <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvcyGiZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CycLClosedAtomicSentence</a> (PRED CONST ARG2..ARGN) such that PRED is an <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4ri_sbFDVGEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">OpenCycDefinitionalPredicate</a>. See also #$PublicConstant-DefinitionalGAFsOK. OpenCyc definitional predicate quotedIsa A binary <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rDeDIGEW0EdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">MetaLanguagePredicate</a> (q.v.) that relates CycL expressions to the <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4raOoTci9qEdma4AACs1uxFw" class="cyc_term">SubLExpressionType</a>s (q.v.) of which they are instances. <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> is thus like a restricted version of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> (q.v.), but with one important difference: the first argument-place of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> is "implicitly quoted" (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwHb_bZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">quotedArgument</a>). So a ground atomic sentence of the form <code>(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> THING EXPR-TYPE)</code> does not mean that <code>THING</code> itself is an instance of <code>EXPR-TYPE</code>. Rather, such a sentence is partly self-referential, and means that the particular CycL expression appearing in the sentence's own first argument-position is an instance of <code>EXPR-TYPE</code>. Thus, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> provides a convenient shorthand for stating certain things that would otherwise require explicit quotation (or some other device for naming expressions). This is better illustrated with a specific example. Suppose we wish to state that the CycL constant <code><a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViH35wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">IndianOcean</a></code> is an instance of the CycL expression type #$PublicConstant. We cannot express this with the straightforward <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> sentence <code>(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViH35wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">IndianOcean</a> #$PublicConstant)</code>, as that states the falsehood that the IndianOcean itself -- which is not a constant but a body of water -- is a public constant. But we can express precisely what we want like this: <pre> (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViH35wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">IndianOcean</a> #$PublicConstant) . </pre> Now <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> is a <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rv4oJWZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">MacroRelation</a> (q.v.), and by its <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvVjg7JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">expansion</a> any given <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> sentence is equivalent to some <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> sentence with an explicitly quoted first argument. The sentence displayed above turns out to be equivalent to: <pre> (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rgGBbEkNuEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">Quote</a> <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViH35wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">IndianOcean</a>) #$PublicConstant). </pre> But the <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> version has two related practical advantages over the <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> version. First, the former is syntactically simpler than the latter. Second, the simpler syntax of the former makes it easier to browse in the Knowedge Base: while the <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> version is conveniently indexed under the KB Browser page for the constant <code><a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViH35wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">IndianOcean</a></code>, the <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> version would apparently be indexed under a separate, brand new page for the term <code>(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rgGBbEkNuEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">Quote</a> <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViH35wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">IndianOcean</a>)</code>. Generalizing the point, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> lets us avoid having potentially to double the number of pages currently in the browser. For the semantically more complicated (but rarely encountered) case in which <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a>'s first argument-place is filled with an open expression, see the accompanying #$cyclistNotes. Quoted Isa An instance of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViaHZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Format</a> (q.v.) that can be specified to hold of a given predicate with respect to a given argument-place (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvYo24ZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">argFormat</a>). (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvYo24ZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">argFormat</a> PRED N <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViUCJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SetTheFormat</a>) means that, for any particular way of fixing the other arguments to PRED besides the Nth, there might be any number (including zero) of things such that, if taken as the Nth argument, PRED holds of those arguments. For example, the format of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViwiJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">biologicalMother</a>'s first argument-place is <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViUCJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SetTheFormat</a>, since a female animal might have any number of offspring. Unlike the other reified instances of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViaHZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Format</a>, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViUCJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SetTheFormat</a> actually places no restriction at all on what PRED might or might not hold of with respect to the relevant argument-place. But one should not infer from this that entry-format assertions using <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViUCJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SetTheFormat</a> are pointless; for they forestall duplication of effort by serving notice that the entry-format of a given argument-place has previously been considered and <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViUCJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SetTheFormat</a> was deemed the appropriate format. <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViUCJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SetTheFormat</a> is the most commonly-encountered format in the Cyc Knowledge Base. Contrast with <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViA65wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SingleEntry</a>. set argument entry format SetTheFormat arg2Format Arg 2 Format An instance of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rv9mupZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">ArgFormatPredicate</a> (q.v.) used to place a particular <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViaHZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Format</a> (q.v.) constraint on the second (or "arg2") argument-place of a given predicate. <code>(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvVoULZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">arg2Format</a> PRED FORMAT)</code> means that <code>PRED</code>'s arg2 is constrained to <code>FORMAT</code>. See the reified instances <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViaHZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Format</a> for further details. Arg 2 Quoted Isa arg2QuotedIsa A binary <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViA1pwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Predicate</a> (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rqKQ0oA2HEdmeVwACs1uxFw" class="cyc_term">arg2QuotedIsa</a> RELN COL) means that semantic well-formedness requires that the term given as the second argument to RELN must be an instance of the <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4raOoTci9qEdma4AACs1uxFw" class="cyc_term">SubLExpressionType</a> COL. That is, (RELN ARG1 ARG2 ...) is semantically well-formed only if (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rBVVEokNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">quotedIsa</a> ARG2 COL) holds. Cyc-NL term NLTerm The collection of terms which are used to represent natural language objects. A <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwNZi3JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">MetaPredicate</a> for specifying the argument-place(s) with respect to which a given <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvVjcd5wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">FunctionalPredicate</a> (q.v) is "functional" in a strict sense. <code>(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rIxW_4sRHEdaAAACQJ5qciw" class="cyc_term">strictlyFunctionalInArgs</a> PRED N)</code> means that <code>PRED</code> is strictly functional in its <code>N</code>th argument-place. That is, for any particular way of fixing all of <code>PRED</code>'s other arguments, there will be at most one thing that, if taken as the <code>N</code>th argument, would result in a true sentence. For example, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViwiJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">biologicalMother</a> is strictly functional in its second argument, as nothing has more than one biological mother. In most cases, the entry-format (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvYo24ZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">argFormat</a>) of a strictly functional argument-place should be <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4r1Sp9BFCrEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">singleEntryFormatInArgs</a> (q.v.). Obviously, the specified integer <code>N</code> must be less than or equal to the arity (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAzpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">arity</a>) of <code>PRED</code>. Note that, for some ways of fixing the other arguments, there might be nothing that would yield a true sentence when put in <code>PRED</code>'s functional argument-place. For example, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvVivUpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">dictator</a> is functional in its second argument because a given country can have at most one dictator at a given time; but of course some countries have no dictator. For a more general predicate that encompasses a looser sense in which a predicate's argument-place might be called "functional", see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvVjcuZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">functionalInArgs</a>. Strictly Functional In Args strictlyFunctionalInArgs An instance of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rv9mupZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">ArgFormatPredicate</a> (q.v.) used to place a particular <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViaHZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Format</a> (q.v.) constraint on the first (or "arg1") argument-place of a given predicate. (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvWGIa5wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">arg1Format</a> PRED FORMAT) means that PRED's arg1 is constrained to FORMAT. See the reified instances <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViaHZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Format</a> for further details. arg1Format Arg 1 Format Pretty String (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwLSVCpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">prettyString</a> TERM STRING) means that STRING is the English word or expression (sequence of words) commonly used to refer to TERM. The predicate <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwLSVCpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">prettyString</a> is used by the code which generates CycL to English paraphrases, but its applicability is not restricted to this use. prettyString Instances of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rdAdL7TKqRDinTRjavMyt8w" class="cyc_term">ProperNamePredicate_Stub</a> are all the lexical predicates that can be used for the purpose of temporarily and rapidly registering the information that a certain STRING is (one of the) name(s) for a certain FORT. The salient feature of the predicates that are instances of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rdAdL7TKqRDinTRjavMyt8w" class="cyc_term">ProperNamePredicate_Stub</a> is they should eventually be replaced with assertions using predicates that contain more grammatical information, such as instances of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvs_C9JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">ProperNamePredicate_Strict</a>. A prototypical example of such a predicate would be <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvgpArJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">termStrings</a>. These differ from predicates that are merely instances of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvXygrJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">ProperNamePredicate_Loose</a> in that those may be missing grammatical information (and are thus difficult to use in understanding text), but are nevertheless not intended to be removed when assertions with more grammatical information become available. ProperNamePredicate-Stub stub proper name predicate Cyc system string A subcollection of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rv_JxFZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLAtomicTerm</a> (q.v.) whose instances can be used to denote character-strings. In the SubL language (as in English), one can refer to a particular character-string by simply putting a pair of quotation marks around it. Semantically, what this amounts to is using a certain character-string to denote itself. More precisely: a given <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAPJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLString</a> STRING is a character-string such that, when it appears inside a pair of double-quotation marks, STRING is interpreted as denoting itself (i.e. STRING). The surrounding quotation-marks are not considered to be parts of STRING; rather, they are syncategorematic symbols whose role is merely to indicate that a string is being referred to. Thus, in the context of the sentence '(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvVjG-pwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">firstName</a> <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAUpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">Lenat</a> "Doug")', the four-character string 'Doug' denotes itself: the string `Doug'. Note that not every <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvWEA25wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CharacterString</a> is a <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAPJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLString</a>: there are some restrictions on what characters a SubL-string can contain. Note also that <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAPJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLString</a>s are atomic terms (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rv_JxFZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLAtomicTerm</a> and <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvh14yJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CycLAtomicTerm</a>), as they cannot be constructed out of other SubL (or CycL) terms via the syntax (grammar) of SubL (or CycL). Thus although the string 'hotdog' can indeed be obtained from 'hot' and 'dog' via concatenation (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvZdQf5wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">ConcatenateStringsFn</a>), the syntax of SubL (or CycL) itself contains no rule that licenses such a construction (see e.g. the comments on <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rv6aZ4JwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLSExpression</a>, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvpDCHZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CycLExpression</a>, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwQf_-5wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CycLTerm</a>, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwD7DupwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CycLFormula</a>, and various subcollections thereof). Note finally that <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAPJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLString</a> is a "quoted-collection" (see #$quotedCollection). Thus the sentence '(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBBJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">isa</a> "hotdog" <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAPJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLString</a>)' means, just as one would expect, that the six-character string 'hotdog' (not the eight-character quote-inclusive '"hotdog"'; see above) is an instance of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAPJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">SubLString</a>. SubLString A <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rv09GqpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">MetaRelation</a> used for stating that a given relation takes a specified number of arguments. <code>(<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAzpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">arity</a> RELN N)</code> means that that semantic well-formedness requires that <code>RELN</code> take exactly <code>N</code> arguments at a time. That is, a formula <code>(RELN ARG1 ... ARGM)</code> is semantically well-formed only if <code>M</code> = <code>N</code>. For example, the <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViAzpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">arity</a> of any instance of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvViBApwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">BinaryPredicate</a> is 2. Note that full semantic well-formedness requires obeying argument-type constraints (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvV3kTJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">ArgTypePredicate</a>) as well as arity constraints. For a general explanation of semantic well-formedness, see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwJHhhJwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CycLExpression_Assertible</a>. See also <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvWAXgZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">CycLExpression_Askable</a>. arity arity cyc lexicon predicator CycLexiconPredicator The collection of all instances of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4ru6VXoHwkQdeaofvXx1Udbw" class="cyc_term">CycLPredicator</a> that denote (see <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rAQMb6kNxEdaAAACgydogAg" class="cyc_term">denotes</a>) an instance of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rvWNIe5wpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">NLSemanticPredicate</a>. Pretty String (<a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwLSVCpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">prettyString</a> TERM STRING) means that STRING is the English word or expression (sequence of words) commonly used to refer to TERM. The predicate <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwLSVCpwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">prettyString</a> is used by the code which generates CycL to English paraphrases, but its applicability is not restricted to this use. prettyString quotedArgument The main (longer) comment on this predicate was written to explain the role of <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwHb_bZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">quotedArgument</a> in an earlier approach for referring to CycL expressions in the CycL language that is currently (April 2002) being phased out in favor of a new approach. Whereas the earlier approach enabled self-reference only by means of a sort of "implicit quotation", the new approach involves a mechanism for explicitly quoting CycL expressions (by putting them inside something analogous to quotation marks). <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org/concept/Mx4rwHb_bZwpEbGdrcN5Y29ycA" class="cyc_term">quotedArgument</a>, unlike #$quotedCollection (q.v.), still has a role to play with respect to the new approach, and its main comment will soon revised to better explain that role. For an explanation of the new approach to quoting, see the shared #$NoteAboutQuotingInCycL and the constants that share that note. Quoted Argument