Semantics of multi-viewpoints ontology alignments

In a previous paper, we defined a multi-viewpoints ontology alignment as a set of correspondences between multi-viewpoints elements. With a multi-viewpoints approach, the basic multi-viewpoints elements are classified into seven types: viewpoints, global concepts, local concepts, global roles, local roles, bridge rules, and individuals. A multi-viewpoints correspondence can be seen as an axiom that asserts a relation between global concepts, local concepts, global roles, local roles or individuals of two distinct multi-viewpoints ontologies. The main contribution of this paper is to provide formal semantic to formalize alignment based on description logic. Semantics of a multi-viewpoints alignment are determined by the semantics of its components. For that purpose, we first, give a formal definition of description logics extended by a stamping mechanism serve to describe multi-viewpoints ontologies and we provide its formal semantics. Then, we define the semantics of the multi-viewpoints ontology alignments.