Conceptual Graphs

Conceptual graphs (CGs) are a system of logic based on the existential graphs of Charles Sanders Peirce and the semantic networks of artificial intelligence. Their purpose is to express meaning in a form that is logically precise, humanly readable, and computationally tractable. With their direct mapping to language, conceptual graphs can serve as an intermediate language for translating computer-oriented formalisms to and from natural languages. With their graphic representation, they can serve as a readable, but formal design and specification language. CGs have been implemented in a variety of projects for information retrieval, database design, expert systems, and natural language processing. A draft ANSI standard for CGs has been developed by the NCITS T2 committee, the liaison to the ISO Conceptual Schema Modelling Facility (CSMF) project under ISO/IEC JTC1/SC21/WG3.