On the relationship between ontology construction and natural language: a socio-semiotic view

Abstract The design and construction of "ontologies" is currently a topic of great interest for diverse groups. Less clear is the extent to which these groups are addressing a common area of concern. By considering the kinds of information and information organizations that are required for adequate accounts of natural language and for sophisticated natural language capabilities in computational systems, this paper distinguishes several different classes of "ontology", each with its own characteristics and principles. A classification for these ontological "realms" is motivated on the basis of systemic-functional semiotics. The resulting stratified "meta-ontology" offers a unifying framework for relating distinct ontological realms while maintaining their individual orientations. In this context, formal ontology can be seen to provide a rather small (although important) component of the overall organization necessary. Claims for the sufficiency of formal ontology in AI and NLP need then to be treated with caution.