Onto-Med >> Theories >> GFO Part I Basic Principles

Overview

General Formal Ontology (GFO)

Next: 10.1 Relations, Relators and Up: General Formal Ontology (GFO) Previous: 9.3 Classification of Property

10 Relations and Facts

To put it in simple terms, relations are entities that bind things of the real world together whereas facts are constituted by several related entities considered together with their relation. Every relation has a finite number of relata or arguments that are connected or related. The number of a relation's arguments is called its arity. We admit the possibility of anadic relations, i.e., relations with an indefinite number of arguments. Further, the relata of a relation can play the same or different roles in the context of the relation. Examples are: a nose being part-of a head, an inflammation being more severe than another, a file being to the left of another, being a patient of a physician, being a participant of a clinical trial, being a student of a university, being related by attending the same lecture.

• 10.1 Relations, Relators and Relational Roles
• 10.2 Facts and Propositions