FROLIO – Formalizable Relationship-Oriented Language-Insensitive Ontology

© Roger M Tagg 2008, revised January 2010, links fixed December 2010

Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web". This website is continually under construction - please send suggestions for improvements to the author.

Relationship Major Category Introduction - "Interaction"

General Meaning

This wide-ranging relationship category is concerned with interaction usually between two humans, but some relationship types could apply to animals, other physical or abstract things (including groups or sets). For some relationship types, it may depend on the existence of arrangement relationships (e.g. spatial nearness, connection, human relatedness) for the interaction to happen.

Category Icon

The icon represents four people possibly collaborating. In most of the types listed below, the relationship is concerned with interaction between individual humans or groups, but it can also involve animals, other physical things and many abstract concepts that take on some aspects of personality.

Relationship Role Diagram (for key to the letter codes click here)

Things (top row, extreme left and right), people (top row, mid left and right), groups (second row far left), ideas (second row, far right) - and even processes (third row, right) - can all take the A and B roles. Role C is the communication that happens; it may be conversation, written statements, questions or proposals, body language - or missiles or other exchanged things. An extra role D (third row, right) represents a process (which may be a simple action) that is the subject of the communication (or the action that is requested, see Contracts below). The tool role I (third row, left) can represent the medium over which the interaction happens, e.g. paper mail, phone, email, chat, videoconference etc - or even in the case of contention - a marketplace, battlefield or sports facility. The other roles (I, P, T, X, Y, Z) are much as usual.

A	A/B	C	A/B	A
A/B				A/B
I			D (also A/B)
P				Z
	T	X	Y

Relationship Types in this Category

The four main sub-categories are cooperation, speech acts (which can also here be written, typed, drawn or coded), influence and and contention.

Cooperation, code “Ic”:

• communicates with - between two agents, human or otherwise, with something being communicated (might be speech, writing, signals, touch). Could be temporary or ongoing, instance or class
• transacts with - a deal between two agents, exchanging some thing on both sides (might be goods, a service, cash, a commitment or promise)
• cooperates with - ongoing or temporary between humans, groups or other things; again begs the question of what the terms of the cooperation are
• shares resources with - the shared resource would take role C
• has symbiosis with - may apply to non-human cooperation
• trusts - implies a one-way assumption of one party that the other party will follow the agreement or cooperation terms. One could have separate relationships trusts honesty of, trusts competence of, and trusts performance of
• consoles, comforts, shows sympathy with

Speech acts, code “Is”:

• requests - A would like B to do something; some repeated interaction may be needed before B is clear what is to be done, and on what terms.
• delegates - A has the power to order B to do something; even then, further interaction may be needed; orders is a more absolute variant of this.
• undertakes – to carry out the request or delegated task
• promises - stronger than above
• proposes - terms of a deal, are offered to the other party
• asserts, alleges - a claimed statement of fact
• offers - something given (good or bad), to another party
• accepts – what the other has said – maybe only “I hear what you say”, but could include “I accept what you have done”
• declines - an offer, request or proposal
• rejects - A does not want to consider or entertain a proposal made by B
• reacts to - A gives a response to what B has offered
• counter-proposes
• agrees with - similar to a transaction, but implies the need to say exactly what has been agreed (might be an opinion, a plan, or a prospective transaction)
• questions - the action requested from B is to give an answer, which may be an opinion, a summary, a judgement etc.
• canvasses opinion from
• answers – a question or gives an opinion

FROLIO counts the potential relationship types addresses, utters, writes, expresses etc as neutral speech acts. These will normally be subsumed by the purpose which would be covered by one of the types above. Their expression would be represented by the Z (author) role

Note: this sub-category, although usually related to cooperation, represents potential or actual contracts, which may be formal or informal. Person A typically requests person B to do or agree to something. There can be a multi-stage communication before B delivers what is requested, which may be represented by the D role. These Speech Act relationships are similar to the "Language Action Perspective" talked about by some authors, e.g. Austin, Searle, Winograd, Medina-Mora, Flores  etc.

Influence, code “Ii”:

• influences - a very general term, which might cover a range of means of influencing others, as most of those below in this list
• advises
• recommends
• threatens, blackmails
• bullies
• orders
• intervenes - comes to the aid of a process, hopefully for good - might overlap with interferes with (see Contention below)
• challenges – could possibly also be regarded as contention
• attempts to persuade the other party on some issue or deal

Note: this sub-category should stop short of actually changing anything physically, otherwise we are in the Transformation category.

Contention, code “Ix”:

• impinges on - usually by one process on another
• competes with - two sentient beings or groups have interacting objectives and both parties can't get all of some resource (see Bernard Guerin) that they want. This could include competition in sports and wars.
• interferes with - upsets a process involving another party
• opposes
• resists
• counteracts - a counter proposal or action is offered in response to a proposal
• ignores - is not on communication terms with another party
• is on collision course with - two things are likely to crash into each other in geographical space, time or some other conceptual dimension
• confronts - could also be a speech act
• attacks
• wreaks vengeance on

Examples

Cooperation
I communicate with my brother in Canada via email or Skype. I transact with Ford to buy a new car. I cooperate with my business partner to build a brand in the software business. My stomach has symbiosis with beneficial bacteria. I trust Amazon.com to dispatch the books I ordered. Computer A and computer B cooperate to produce the output.

Speech Act
The student requested me to give him access to the server. The salesman proposes a deal. The hotel offers 3 nights for the price of 2. John questioned Mary if she was going to the concert tonight. I accepted the suggestion that we should go to watch the game on Saturday. I agree that we should offer this new course. My friend promises to send me the money he owes. Hamas rejects the Israeli peace proposal. The chairman delegated the secretary to write to the local MP about the problem. Our union opposes casualization of the workplace.

Influence
The government intervenes in the industrial dispute. My friend recommends I buy a Ford next time. The major ordered his troops to go "over the top". Our employer challenges us to develop new sources of income. The telephone salesperson attempts to persuade me to change my supplier.

Contention
The two airliners are on a collision course. The USA is on a collision course with Iran. Camels are competing with kangaroos for feed in the outback. My friend's mother in law interferes with how they bring up their kids. Freeing up trade impinges on people keeping their jobs. The government counteracts inflation by raising interest rates. My friend ignores all attempts from his ex-girlfriend to make up. The discontented wife wreaked vengeance by cutting up her estranged husband's suits into pieces.

Links to other Categories (these cross-links now fixed!)

Other Links

• Explanation of roles in relationships
• Top level of the FROLIO relationships
• Top level of the FROLIO ontology

• FROLIO home page

This version updated on 3rd December 2010