GMEOW Lexicon Module

• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/slices/lexicon
• Tier: extension
• Group: extensions

What This Slice Covers

This slice owns 43 terms and contributes 13 mapping or projection rows. Use it when its terms match the native fact you want to preserve; use the linkage tables to see how those facts leave GMEOW for consumer vocabularies.

Dependencies

• gmeow:slices/documents
• gmeow:slices/kernel
• gmeow:slices/language
• gmeow:slices/observations
• gmeow:slices/temporal

Consumers

• Lexical items and attestations for the language family; archaeological readings.

Local Map

Examples

Word Etymology

• Source: slices/extensions/lexicon/examples/word-etymology.ttl
• GMEOW terms: gmeow:EtymologicalDerivation, gmeow:Language, gmeow:LexicalForm, gmeow:LexicalItem, gmeow:bcp47Tag, gmeow:derivationBorrowing, gmeow:derivationKind, gmeow:derivationSource, gmeow:derivationTarget, gmeow:formOf

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: a word, its forms, and its etymology . A gmeow:LexicalItem
# is a lexeme in a language; its written/spoken/signed surface strings are
# separate gmeow:LexicalForms (gmeow:hasLexicalForm), so the same lexeme can carry
# many forms across scripts and registers. A gmeow:EtymologicalDerivation reifies
# WHERE a word came from — source → target with a gmeow:derivationKind
# (inheritance / borrowing / calque / sound-change …) — so "English 'ontology'
# was BORROWED from Greek" is a first-class, typed claim, not a free-text note.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/lexicon/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

# --- The English lexeme and its written form.
ex:ontology a gmeow:LexicalItem ;
    gmeow:lexicalItemLanguage gmeow:langEnglish ;
    gmeow:hasLexicalForm      ex:ontologyForm .

ex:ontologyForm a gmeow:LexicalForm ;
    gmeow:formOf             ex:ontology ;
    gmeow:formRepresentation "ontology" ;
    gmeow:formType           gmeow:formWritten .

# --- The Greek source lexeme it derives from.
ex:greek a gmeow:Language ; rdfs:label "Ancient Greek"@en ; gmeow:bcp47Tag "grc" .

ex:greekOntos a gmeow:LexicalItem ;
    gmeow:lexicalItemLanguage ex:greek ;
    gmeow:hasLexicalForm      ex:ontosForm .

ex:ontosForm a gmeow:LexicalForm ;
    gmeow:formOf             ex:greekOntos ;
    gmeow:formRepresentation "ὄντος" ;
    gmeow:formType           gmeow:formWritten .

# --- The etymology: a typed derivation (borrowing) from Greek into English.
ex:etymology a gmeow:EtymologicalDerivation ;
    gmeow:derivationSource ex:greekOntos ;
    gmeow:derivationTarget ex:ontology ;
    gmeow:derivationKind   gmeow:derivationBorrowing .

Terms

Classes

Properties

Individuals

Linkages

• Rows: 13
• Projection profiles: ontolex
• External vocabularies: lime, ontolex, prov, rdf, wd

Guide

GMEOW Lexicon Mapping

Mapping target: OntoLex-Lemon, LIME, Lexicog, Morph, FrAC, SKOS/SKOS-XL, PROV-O, Web Annotation, CRMinf

GMEOW's lexicon module provides first-class modeling for lexical items, concrete forms, usage attestations, and etymological derivations. It builds on the language-state/variety layer and the universal observation stack (standpoint facility).

LexicalItem & LexicalForm

A LexicalItem is the abstract lexical or constructional object — a word, morpheme, phrase, idiom, symbol, sign, or construction. It carries no surface form itself; forms are linked via hasLexicalForm.

A LexicalForm is a concrete manifestation: written, spoken, signed, rendered, reconstructed, normalized, transliterated, or translated. The surface representation is formRepresentation; the kind is a LexicalFormType value.

ex:cat a gmeow:LexicalItem ;
    gmeow:lexicalItemLanguage ex:english ;
    gmeow:hasLexicalForm ex:catWritten, ex:catSpoken, ex:catReconstructed .

ex:catWritten a gmeow:LexicalForm ;
    gmeow:formRepresentation "cat" ;
    gmeow:formType gmeow:formWritten .

ex:catSpoken a gmeow:LexicalForm ;
    gmeow:formRepresentation "/kæt/" ;
    gmeow:formType gmeow:formSpoken .

ex:catReconstructed a gmeow:LexicalForm ;
    gmeow:formRepresentation "*kattōn" ;
    gmeow:formType gmeow:formReconstructed .

A single lexical item may have many coexisting forms. None is privileged (Principle 9). Polyglot items are modeled as separate LexicalItem instances linked by translation, each with its own lexicalItemLanguage.

OntoLex alignment

• LexicalItem aligns to ontolex:LexicalEntry by reference.
• LexicalForm aligns to ontolex:Form by reference.
• formRepresentation aligns to ontolex:writtenRep for written forms (lossy for spoken/reconstructed).
• hasLexicalForm aligns to ontolex:lexicalForm.

The projection layer handles the directional mapping; the ontology module does not import OntoLex axioms (Principle 5).

UsageAttestation — evidence, not truth

Attestation records that a form was observed; it does not assert that a proposed interpretation is correct.

UsageAttestation is an Observation + Relator that records evidence: a form was seen in a source, a corpus, an inscription, a platform, or a community. It is evidence, not truth (Principle 12). Interpretation — reading, translation, etymology — lives in the claim layer, not the evidence layer.

ex:yeetAttestation a gmeow:UsageAttestation ;
    gmeow:attestedForm ex:yeetSpoken ;
    gmeow:attestedInLanguage ex:english ;
    gmeow:attestedInSource ex:twitterCorpus2020 ;
    gmeow:attestedInContext ex:genZCommunity ;
    gmeow:attestationInterval ex:yeetInterval ;
    gmeow:confidence 0.95 .

Because UsageAttestation is an Observation, it inherits the universal claim stack: vantage (who asserts the attestation), observedFeature (the attested form, via attestedForm ⊑ observedFeature), confidence, validFrom/validUntil, and assertedAt. Temporal interpretation and evidence evaluation live in the SPARQL/query layer, not the reasoner (Principle 12).

Etymology as a claim graph

Etymology is not a flat origin string. It is a graph of provenance-rich, standpointed claims.

EtymologicalDerivation is an Observation + Relator linking a source lexical item/form to a target lexical item/form, carrying:

• derivationKind — borrowing, calque, semantic shift, sound change, compounding, etc.
• derivationEvidence — supporting UsageAttestation or Source nodes
• confidence, accordingTo, validFrom/validUntil — inherited from Observation

Multiple derivations for the same target coexist without privilege (Principle 9). A superseded derivation is suppressed with displayable false, never erased (Principle 10).

ex:derivationAlgebraBorrowing a gmeow:EtymologicalDerivation ;
    gmeow:derivationSource ex:alJabr ;
    gmeow:derivationTarget ex:algebra ;
    gmeow:derivationKind gmeow:derivationBorrowing ;
    gmeow:confidence 0.85 .

ex:ax-derivation-borrowing a owl:Axiom ;
    owl:annotatedSource   ex:derivationAlgebraBorrowing ;
    owl:annotatedProperty gmeow:derivationKind ;
    owl:annotatedTarget   gmeow:derivationBorrowing ;
    gmeow:accordingTo ex:standpoint-etymologist-a ;
    gmeow:confidence 0.85 ;
    gmeow:validFrom "0800-01-01T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime .

Reconstructed proto-forms

A reconstructed form (e.g. PIE *wódr̥) is a LexicalForm with formType gmeow:formReconstructed. Its status as a reconstruction — not a universally accepted truth — is recorded via standpoint-indexed owl:Axiom reifiers:

ex:pieWaterForm a gmeow:LexicalForm ;
    gmeow:formRepresentation "*wódr̥" ;
    gmeow:formType gmeow:formReconstructed .

ex:ax-reconstruction-claim a owl:Axiom ;
    owl:annotatedSource   ex:pieWaterForm ;
    owl:annotatedProperty gmeow:formType ;
    owl:annotatedTarget   gmeow:formReconstructed ;
    gmeow:accordingTo ex:standpoint-linguist-reconstructionist ;
    gmeow:confidence 0.70 ;
    gmeow:standpointModality gmeow:probable .

The reconstruction is a standpointed claim with modality probable, not an axiom of the universal standpoint.

One attestation, multiple readings

A single UsageAttestation (an oracle bone inscription) can support two competing LexicalForm readings. Each reading is a separate standpointed claim via wasDerivedFrom + owl:Axiom reifier:

ex:readingA a gmeow:LexicalForm ;
    gmeow:formRepresentation "reading-A (sun)" ;
    gmeow:formType gmeow:formNormalized ;
    gmeow:wasDerivedFrom ex:oracleBoneInscription .

ex:ax-reading-a a owl:Axiom ;
    owl:annotatedSource   ex:readingA ;
    owl:annotatedProperty gmeow:wasDerivedFrom ;
    owl:annotatedTarget   ex:oracleBoneInscription ;
    gmeow:accordingTo ex:standpoint-epigrapher-a ;
    gmeow:confidence 0.80 .

The attestation is evidence; the reading is interpretation. The separation is structural, not merely conventional (Principle 12).

Projection roadmap

Full Lexicog, Morph, FrAC, SKOS-XL, Web Annotation, and CRMinf projections are documented but staged for future work.

Terms

gmeow:LexicalItem · gmeow:lexicalItemLanguage · gmeow:hasLexicalForm

A LexicalItem is the abstract lexical or constructional object — word, morpheme, phrase, idiom, symbol, sign, or construction — carrying no surface form itself. lexicalItemLanguage functionally fixes its language (mint a distinct item per language); hasLexicalForm links its concrete forms.

gmeow:LexicalForm · gmeow:formOf · gmeow:formRepresentation · gmeow:formType · gmeow:LexicalFormType · gmeow:formTransliterationScheme

A LexicalForm is a concrete manifestation of an item — formOf is the inverse of hasLexicalForm. formRepresentation is the functional surface string; formType draws the open LexicalFormType vocabulary (written, spoken, signed, rendered, reconstructed, normalized, transliterated, translated); a transliterated form names its formTransliterationScheme. Many forms coexist, none privileged.

gmeow:UsageAttestation · gmeow:attestedForm · gmeow:attestedInLanguage · gmeow:attestedInSource · gmeow:attestedInContext · gmeow:attestedOnCarrier · gmeow:attestationInterval

An Observation + Relator recording evidence — a form was seen in a source, corpus, inscription, platform, or community — not truth (Principle 12). The attested* properties bind the form, language, source, context, and physical carrier; attestationInterval carries the period. attestedForm ⊑ observedFeature, so it inherits the universal claim stack (vantage, confidence, validity).

gmeow:EtymologicalDerivation · gmeow:derivationSource · gmeow:derivationTarget · gmeow:derivationKind · gmeow:DerivationKind · gmeow:derivationEvidence

An Observation + Relator linking a source lexical item/form to a target, making etymology a graph of provenance-rich, standpointed claims rather than a flat origin string. derivationKind draws the open DerivationKind vocabulary (borrowing, calque, inheritance, semantic shift, sound change, compounding, affixation, clipping, back-formation, reanalysis, folk etymology, spelling change, reconstruction, unknown origin); derivationEvidence cites supporting attestations or sources. Competing derivations coexist; superseded ones are displayable false.