DUL Grounding
Every microframe is anchored in DUL (DOLCE+DnS Ultralite). This anchoring is not a second classification. A microframe's user-facing semantic category (see Microframes § Classification) is the one classifying axis; DUL supplies its grounding — a coarse grounding kind plus the specific DUL parent it resolves to. This document explains how that grounding works and how it lines up with the categories. It applies to every microframe, whether it grounds LU meaning through TQR or states a structural relation within a frame.
The model#
| Piece | What it is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic category | The single user-facing classification (13 values). | Stored per microframe (typ_microframe_category, idType 42). |
| Grounding kind | A coarse tag: property vs description. | Derived — read off the microframe's DUL parent; not a stored axis. |
| DUL parent | The specific dul: object property or dul_class_* frame the microframe grounds in. |
The target of the microframe's rel_inheritance grounding edge. |
The category answers what does this relation mean to a user?; the grounding kind and DUL parent answer how is it wired into the foundational ontology? — the machine-facing side that drives querying and inference.
Grounding kind#
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_inheritancelink to thatdul:microframe (conceptuallyrdfs: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_inheritancelink to that class frame (conceptuallyrdf: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(adul:Plan),is_regulated_by(adul:Norm),has_diagnostic(adul: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. Grounding kind is not stored as a column. A microframe carries one grounding edge — a
rel_inheritancelink — and the grounding kind is implicit in what that edge targets: adul:-prefixed object-property microframe (property-grounded) or adul_class_*frame such asdul_class_plan(description-grounded). The classification form stores only the semantic category and the GL quale (asrel_hastypetype-instance links); grounding kind is derived from the edge, not persisted.
DUL parents (grounding metadata)#
The specific DUL parent a microframe resolves to is grounding metadata, not a second classification. DUL parents come in two kinds, matching the grounding kind: object properties (property-grounded, conceptually rdfs:subPropertyOf) and classes (description-grounded, conceptually rdf:type / dul:specializes). Both attach through the same rel_inheritance edge; the grounding kind is implicit in which kind of target it points at.
The complete parent-to-microframe listing — every dul: property and dul_class_* frame with the microframes grounded under it — is the DUL Parent Map in TQR Reference; the per-microframe grounding is the DUL parent column of the Microframe Spine there.
How grounding lines up with category#
Category and grounding kind 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.
| Semantic category | Grounding kind |
|---|---|
| Formal | mixed (property · description) |
| Mereological | mixed (property · description) |
| Spatial | property |
| Quality | property |
| Telic | description |
| Agentive | mixed (description · property) |
| Causal | property |
| Natural | mixed (property · description) |
| Experiential | description |
| Role | description |
| Social | description |
| Semiotic | property |
| General | property |
The Causal / Agentive split#
A direct result of the grounding model: causation and agency separate, where the earlier scheme merged them.
- Causal (property-grounded) — general causation, no agent:
has_cause,has_as_effect,results_from,has_influence. Modelled as a pre/post-condition between events. - Agentive (description-grounded →
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)?