Issue name: 109-ExpressivePower

What is the expressive power of RDF?

Raised by:

Peter F. Patel-Schneider

Raised on:

2003-01-30

Raised in message:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-comments/2003JanMar/0154.html

Target document section reference(s):

http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-rdf-concepts-20030123/

Status:

Raised

Last updated:

2003-01-30

Owner:

Graham Klyne

Details

RDF Concepts states
The expressive power of RDF corresponds to the
existential-conjunctive (EC) subset of first order logic [Sowa].

How can
takes(John,book,school)
be represented in RDF?

How can
loves(John,spouse(John))
be represented in RDF?

How can the RDF and RDFS semantic conditions be represented in the
existential-conjunctive subset of first order logic?

History

2003-01-30: Raised

See: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-comments/2003JanMar/0154.html

There is incorrect wording describing the expressive power of RDF. A formal description would be: "The expressive power of RDF is equivalent to the binary existential-conjunctive subset of first order logic". All informal explanations should be consistent with this.