====== Ontology Language ======

[[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:start|Go up to Terms and Definitions]]

===== Discussion =====

An ontology language provides a formal means to express an [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:o:ontology|ontology]]. It supplies constructs for representing concepts, relationships, classifications, assertions, constraints, axioms, annotations, and other ontology content.

An ontology language differs from the ontology itself. The language provides the expression mechanism. The ontology provides the domain commitments expressed through that mechanism.

Ontology languages and representation approaches differ in their assumptions, semantics, constraints, reasoning capabilities, and implementation tradeoffs.

===== Definition =====

//formal language used to express an ontology//

===== Source =====

Generalised from common ontology engineering usage and specialized for use in the FX Demo Reference Architecture.

===== Note =====

An ontology language differs from a graph store, serialisation format, modeling tool, or reasoner. Those technologies support ontology implementation, exchange, storage, or processing.

===== Example =====

[[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:o:owl|OWL]] is an ontology language. An FX transaction ontology expressed in OWL uses OWL constructs and OWL reasoning semantics.

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