Combining Entity Resolution and Query Answering in Ontologies: A Formal Conceptual Framework

Abstract

This paper reports on a recent formal framework for integrating entity resolution and query answering within ontologies governed by rules expressed in the form of tuple-generating dependencies and equality-generating dependencies. Our framework outlines the semantics of the ontology by defining special instances involving equivalence classes of entities and sets of values. The former serve to gather entities referring to the same real-world object, and the latter to catalog alternative attribute values. This approach not only addresses entity resolution but also overcomes potential inconsistencies within the data. Additionally, we introduce a tailored chase procedure for this framework, ensuring non-failure and ultimately yielding a universal solution. This universal solution, in turn, can be used to obtain certain answers to conjunctive queries.