Building an ontology by transforming complex triples

A computer program product, comprising:

• a computer-readable, tangible storage device;
• and
• a computer-readable program code stored in the computer-readable, tangible storage device, the computer-readable program code containing instructions that are executed by a central processing unit (CPU) of a computer system to implement a method of building an ontology, the method comprising the steps of:
• the computer system receiving a plurality of complex triples extracted from free-form text provided by a software application, each complex triple including a compound subject, a compound predicate and a compound object;
• the computer system performing a syntactic transformation of the plurality of complex triples by, based on a grammar, identifying core terms and non-core terms in the plurality of complex triples, identifying syntactic elements in the plurality of complex triples including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and standardizing the plurality of complex triples, wherein a result of the step of performing the syntactic transformation is a plurality of syntactically transformed complex triples whose terms are aligned to the grammar;
• the computer system performing a semantic transformation of the plurality of syntactically transformed complex triples into respective one or more simplified triples included in a plurality of simplified triples by assigning each core term included in the plurality of simplified triples to exactly one term definition and to exactly one identification key of a reference ontology, wherein each simplified triple includes a subject term, a predicate term and an object term, and wherein each of the one or more simplified triples retains the semantics of the respective syntactically transformed complex triple;
• based in part on a meta-schema of the reference ontology, the computer system performing an enrichment transformation of the plurality of simplified triples into a plurality of simplified and enriched triples by adding relations derived from a correspondence each term in the plurality of simplified triples has with the reference ontology and by adding representations of semantics of definitions of terms in the plurality of simplified triples, wherein the definitions are included in the reference ontology;
• and
• the computer system storing the plurality of simplified and enriched triples as a new ontology that represents knowledge included within the software application that provides the free-form text,
• wherein the step of performing the syntactic transformation of the plurality of complex triples includes:
• determining a term of a complex triple included in the plurality of complex triples is a core term and is an adjective;
• and
• determining the adjective is linked to a core noun included in the complex triple,
• wherein the step of performing the semantic transformation of the plurality of syntactically transformed complex triples into the respective one or more simplified triples included in the plurality of simplified triples is based in part on the adjective linked to the core noun included in the complex triple and includes generating a conceptualized adjective from the adjective, wherein the step of generating the conceptualized adjective includes:
• sending to a user a list of attributes included in a lexical database that are related to the adjective and determining whether the user selects one of the attributes in the list of attributes;
• if the user selects one of the attributes, designating the selected attribute as the conceptualized adjective;
• if the user does not select one of the attributes, sending to the user a list of nouns in the lexical database that are derivationally related forms of the adjective and determining whether the user selects one of the nouns in the list of nouns;
• if the user selects one of the nouns, designating the selected noun as the conceptualized adjective;
• if the user does not select one of the nouns, sending to the user a list of hypernyms and hyponyms that the lexical database associates with the nouns in the list of nouns, and determining whether the user selects one of the hypernyms or one of the hyponyms;
• if the user selects one of the hypernyms or one of the hyponyms, designating the selected hypernym or hyponym as the conceptualized adjective;
• and
• if the user does not select one of the hypernyms or hyponyms, creating the conceptualized adjective by adding a suffix _ness to an end of the adjective, and
• wherein the step of performing the enrichment transformation of the plurality of simplified triples is based in part on the conceptualized adjective.

A method of building an ontology, the method comprising the steps of:

• a computer receiving a plurality of complex triples extracted from free-form text provided by a software application, each complex triple including a compound subject, a compound predicate and a compound object;
• the computer performing a syntactic transformation of the plurality of complex triples by, based on a grammar, identifying core terms and non-core terms in the plurality of complex triples, identifying syntactic elements in the plurality of complex triples including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and standardizing the plurality of complex triples, wherein a result of the step of performing the syntactic transformation is a plurality of syntactically transformed complex triples whose terms are aligned to the grammar;
• the computer performing a semantic transformation of the plurality of syntactically transformed complex triples into respective one or more simplified triples included in a plurality of simplified triples by assigning each core term included in the plurality of simplified triples to exactly one term definition and to exactly one identification key of a reference ontology, wherein each simplified triple includes a subject_term, a predicate term and an object_term, and wherein each of the one or more simplified triples retains the semantics of the respective syntactically transformed complex triple;
• based in part on a meta-schema of the reference ontology, the computer performing an enrichment transformation of the plurality of simplified triples into a plurality of simplified and enriched triples by adding relations derived from a correspondence each term in the plurality of simplified triples has with the reference ontology and by adding representations of semantics of definitions of terms in the plurality of simplified triples, wherein the definitions are included in the reference ontology;
• and
• the computer storing the plurality of simplified and enriched triples as a new ontology that represents knowledge included within the software application that provides the free-form text,
• wherein the step of performing the syntactic transformation of the plurality of complex triples includes:
• determining a first term of a complex triple included in the plurality of complex triples is a core term and is a verb;
• and
• determining a second term of the complex triple is an object,
• wherein the step of performing the semantic transformation of the plurality of syntactically transformed complex triples into the respective one or more simplified triples included in the plurality of simplified triples is based in part on the first term that is a core term and a verb, and includes generating a conceptualized verb from the verb, wherein the step of generating the conceptualized verb includes:
• sending to a user a list of verbs included in a lexical database that lexically match the verb and determining a verb in the list of verbs whose definition is selected by the user;
• sending to the user a list of nouns included in the lexical database that are derivationally related forms of the verb whose definition is selected by the user and determining whether the user selects one of the nouns as having a meaning that matches a meaning of the conceptualized verb;
• if the user selects one of the nouns, designating the selected noun as the conceptualized verb;
• if the user does not select one of the nouns, sending to the user a list of hypernyms and hyponyms that the lexical database associates with the nouns in the list of nouns, and determining whether the user selects one of the hypernyms or one of the hyponyms;
• if the user selects one of the hypernyms or one of the hyponyms, designating the selected hypernym or hyponym ad the conceptualized verb;
• if the user does not select one of the hypernyms or hyponyms, creating the conceptualized verb by adding a suffix _ness to an end of the verb, and
• wherein the step of performing the enrichment transformation of the plurality of simplified triples is based in part on the conceptualized verb.