A Comparison of three Controlled Natural Languages for OWL 1.1

At OWLED2007 a task force was formed to work towards a common Controlled Natural Language Syntax for OWL 1.1. In this paper members of the task force compare three controlled natural languages (CNLs) — Attempto Controlled English (ACE), Ordnance Survey Rabbit (Rabbit), and Sydney OWL Syntax (SOS) — that have been designed to express the logical content of OWL 1.1 ontologies. The common goal of these three languages is to make OWL ontologies accessible to people with no training in formal logics. We briefly introduce these three CNLs and discuss a number of requirements to an OWL-compatible CNL that have emerged from the present work. We then summarise the similarities and differences of the three CNLs and make some preliminary recommendations to an OWL-compatible CNL.

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