DUL Grounding

Every fnbr: microframe is anchored in DUL (DOLCE+DnS Ultralite). The anchoring uses three nested classification axes. Understanding how they relate is the key to the whole model.

Three axes

They nest: grounding kind is the coarsest cut, DUL family the middle, semantic category the finest, user-facing one. A microframe has exactly one value on each axis — but only category, DUL family, and the GL quale are stored per microframe (as rel_hastype links to type instances). Grounding kind is not stored; it is read off what the microframe's grounding edge points at (see below).

Grounding kind: the coarsest cut

The four qualia were built to describe a single object's intrinsic profile. When the inventory was grounded in DUL, about half the relations fit a DUL object property directly; the other half kept needing two or three properties at once, or a property plus a role. That resistance was the signal: those relations do not hold between two individuals — they denote a situation type that classifies its participants. In DUL terms they are Descriptions, not properties.

Property-grounded

Holds directly between two individuals; grounded as a sub-property of a DUL object property.

• DUL parent: a dul:-prefixed object-property microframe (dul:hasPart, dul:hasLocation, dul:hasPrecondition …)
• Edge: a rel_inheritance link to that dul: microframe (conceptually rdfs:subPropertyOf)
• Domain / Range: the two endpoints of the relation
• Examples: is_made_of, has_as_colour, has_as_origin, has_cause

Taxonomy, mereology, location, quality, and plain causation are property-grounded. Parthood is a property — reifying it would be overkill.

Description-grounded

Denotes a situation type — a reified concept that defines roles and classifies the entities filling them; grounded as a specialization of a DUL class.

• DUL parent: a DUL class frame (dul_class_plan, dul_class_norm, dul_class_diagnosis, dul_class_role, dul_class_concept, dul_class_description)
• Edge: a rel_inheritance link to that class frame (conceptually rdf:type / dul:specializes)
• Domain / Range: the Roles the Description defines; concrete LUs are classified by these roles in a Situation
• Examples: object_of_the_activity (a dul:Plan), is_regulated_by (a dul:Norm), has_diagnostic (a dul:Diagnosis)

Telic, the creation senses of Agentive, Role, Social, and Experiential are description-grounded. A Telic is a Plan defining a purpose role; an Agentive creation is a Plan with creator and created-entity roles. A property has exactly two endpoints; a Description defines any number of roles — which is why the composite qualia (constitutively_uses, agentively_uses) can only be Descriptions.

For the database. There is no grounding_kind column. A microframe carries one kind of grounding edge — a rel_inheritance link — and the grounding kind is implicit in what that edge targets: a dul:-prefixed object-property microframe (property-grounded) or a dul_class_* frame such as dul_class_plan (description-grounded). The classification form stores only the semantic category, the DUL family, and the GL quale (as rel_hastype type-instance links); grounding kind is derived from the edge, not persisted.

DUL family: the middle cut

The DUL family names which DUL relation a microframe groups under. The eight property families correspond to native DUL/DOLCE relation roots; the ninth, Description (stored label DescriptiveContext), collects every description-grounded microframe (subdivided by the DUL class it reifies).

A tenth family, SocialDependence, is defined in typ_microframe_dul_family but is used only on the DUL side — by the microframes dul:acts_for and dul:acts_through. No fnbr: microframe currently groups under it, so it does not appear in the fnbr: inventory below; the "nine families" above count only those the fnbr: set uses.

Classification

Taxonomic backbone — is-a and instance-of.

DUL roots: dul:specializes · dul:isClassifiedBy.
Microframes: instance_of · subtype_of.

Mereology

Part–whole: parthood, membership, material constitution.

DUL roots: dul:hasPart · dul:hasMember · dul:hasConstituent.
Microframes: contains · has_as_member · has_building_part · includes · is_derived_from · is_made_of.

Quality

Reified qualities and measurement (Quality–Region pattern).

DUL roots: dul:hasQuality · dul:isParametrizedBy · dul:parametrizes.
Microframes: has_as_attribute · has_as_colour · is_idiosyncrasy_of · measured_by · quantifies.

Location

Conventional or habitual location (not momentary position).

DUL roots: dul:hasLocation · dul:isLocationOf.
Microframes: has_as_a_resident · has_as_typical_location · has_as_origin · is_the_workplace_of · lives_in.

Participation

How an entity takes part in an event.

DUL roots: dul:isParticipantIn · dul:hasParticipant.
Microframes: is_affected_by_agentive · is_affected_by_event.

Sequence

Conditional ordering. DUL models causation through pre/post-conditions, so general causation lives here.

DUL roots: dul:hasPrecondition · dul:hasPostcondition.
Microframes: causes_emotion · causes_infection · causes_naturally · causes_reaction · has_as_effect · has_causal_origin · has_cause · has_influence · produces_naturally · resulting_state · results_from.

Semiotic

Aboutness / reference between an information object and its subject.

DUL roots: dul:isAbout.
Microframes: has_informational_origin.

Association

Catch-all root; a placeholder to be specialised when the relation is understood.

DUL roots: dul:associatedWith.
Microframes: related_to.

Description

Every description-grounded microframe. Stored in the WebTool under the family label DescriptiveContext (typ_microframe_dul_family, idType 43) — "Description" here is the doc shorthand; the subdivision by DUL class below is conceptual and is not itself a stored value. Subdivided by the DUL class reified:

How the axes line up

Category and grounding are independent: most categories are uniformly one grounding kind, but four are mixed — exactly where a user category spans both an intrinsic relation and a situation type. Those mixed rows are the useful diagnostics.

Category names are the doc shorthand (see TQR § Semantic Categories for the stored UI labels); Description in the DUL-families column is the stored DescriptiveContext family.

The Causal / Agentive split

A direct result of the grounding model: causation and agency separate, where the earlier scheme merged them.

• Causal (property-grounded, family Sequence) — general causation, no agent: has_cause, has_as_effect, results_from, has_influence. Modelled as a pre/post-condition between events.
• Agentive (description-grounded, family Description → dul:Plan) — genuine creation: has_as_agent (root), has_as_creator, has_intentional_cause.

The test: is an agent positing the outcome (Agentive → Plan), or does the effect merely follow from a condition (Causal → postcondition property)?