Conceptual Structures Frequently Asked Questions

(originated by Gerard Ellis)

Here we answer some of the frequently asked questions about conceptual structures.

• What are Conceptual Structures?
• How should I pronounce "Peirce"?
• What are useful books/papers to read about conceptual structures?
• Where are the electronic forums for discussing conceptual structures?
• Where are the conferences for conceptual structures?
• What journals have conceptual structures papers appeared in?
• What tools are available?
  
  
• What are Conceptual Structures?
  Conceptual structures are a kind of knowledge representation developed in John Sowa's book ``Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine''. They are a graphic notation for typed first-order logic which has been applied domains including natural language processing, information systems modelling, program specification, information retrieval, machine learning and case based reasoning.
  
  
• How should I pronounce "Peirce"? Quote from John Sowa's message of 15 March'95: Re pronunciation of "Peirce": C. S. Peirce is descended from a man named John Pers, who came to America from England. I don't know how the spelling changed, but the pronunciation hasn't. Therefore, Peirce is still pronounced Pers, which rhymes with the English word "purse".
  
  
• What are useful books/papers to read about conceptual structures?
  • John F. Sowa (1984) "Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine", Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
  • Heather D. Pfeiffer and Timothy E. Nagle (Eds.) (1993) "Conceptual Structures: Theory and Implementation", Springer-Verlag, Number 754, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Workshop on Conceptual Graphs, Las Cruces, New Mexico, July 8-10, 1992.
  • Guy W. Mineau and Bernard Moulin and John F. Sowa (Eds.) (1993) "Conceptual Graphs for Knowledge Representation", Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Number 699, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Conceptual Structures, Quebec City, Canada, August 4-7.
  • William M. Tepfenhart and Judith P. Dick and John F. Sowa (Eds.) (1994) "Conceptual Structures: Current Practices", Second International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS'94, College Park, Maryland, USA, August, Lecture Notes in Artifical Intelligence, Number 835, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
  • Gerard Ellis and Robert A. Levinson and William Rich and John F. Sowa (Eds.) (1995) "Conceptual Graphs: Structure-based Knowledge Representation", Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Conceptual Structures ICCS'95, August 14-18, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer-Verlag, Number 954, Berlin.
  • Tim Nagle and Jan Nagle and Laurie Gerholz and Peter Eklund (Eds.) (1992) "Conceptual Structures: Current Research and Practice", Ellis Horwood.
  • John F. Sowa (1991) "Toward the Expressive Power of Natural Language," J.F. Sowa (Ed.), Principles of Semantic Networks: Explorations in the Representation of Knowledge, Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA, p. 157-189.
  • John F. Sowa (1993) "Relating Diagrams to Logic", Guy W. Mineau and Bernard Moulin and John F. Sowa (Eds.), Conceptual Graphs for Knowledge Representation, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Number 699, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Conceptual Structures, Quebec City, Canada, August 4-7.
  • John F. Sowa (1992) "Conceptual Graphs Summary", T. E. Nagle and J. A. Nagle and L. L. Gerholz and P. W. Eklund (Eds.), Conceptual Structures: Current Research and Practice, Ellis Horwood, p. 3-51.
  • John F. Sowa (1993) "Logical Foundations for Representing Object-Oriented Systems", Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, volume 5.
  • Kenneth Laine Ketner (1990) "Elements of Logic: An Introduction to Peirce's Existential Graphs," Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas.
  • Don D. Roberts (1973) "The Existential Graphs of Charles S. Peirce", Mouton, The Hague, 1973.
  • Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce Charles (1931-58) Hartshorne and Paul Weiss (Eds.) Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
  • A conceptual structures bibliography.
    
    
• Where are the electronic forums for discussing conceptual structures? The CG list is hosted at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA. To subscribe, send mail as follows:
  
  To: majordomo@conceptualgraphs.org
  Subject: (ignored)
  subscribe cg
  end
  
  
• Where are the conferences for conceptual structures? There is an annual conference ``International Conference on Conceptual Structures'' (ICCS).
  • The conference ICCS95 was held at University of California, Santa Cruz, August 14-18, 1995.
  • The 1996 conference ICCS96 was held in Sydney, Australia
  • The 1997 conference ICCS97 was held in Seattle, Washington.
  • The 1998 conference ICCS98 was held in Montpellier, France.
  • The 1999 conference ICCS99 will be held in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
    
    
• What journals have conceptual structures papers appeared in?
  • special editions of journals
    • _Journal of Theoretical and Experimental AI (JETAI)_, vol. 4, no. 2, 1992, edited by Eileen C. Way.
    • _Knowledge-Based Systems_, vol. 5, no. 3, 1992, ed. by John F. Sowa.
    • _Revue d'Intelligence Artificielle_
    The papers in these issues were based on material that had been presented at the various CG workshops, but all of them were specially written for those issues and reviewed separately for them.
  • Computers and Mathematics with Applications Journal also had a special edition on Semantic Networks edited by Fritz Lehmann which could possibly also be classed in this group.
  • other journals where papers have appeared
    • Data and Knowledge Engineering
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • IBM Journal of Research and Development
    • Computers and Mathematics with Applications
    • Journal of the Assoc. for Literary and Linguistic Computing
    • Applied Artificial Intelligence
    • International Journal of Man-Machine Studies
    • International Journal of Expert Systems
    • Information and Software Technology
    • Methodologies for Intelligent Systems
    • Computational Linguistics
    • IEEE Expert
    • IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems
    • Methods of Information in Medicine
      
      
• What tools are available? For information about CG tools see the CG Home Page
• The Peirce Project is now no longer operating. There was an annual Peirce workshop associated with the International Conference on Conceptual Structures. The proceedings of the Peirce workshops are electronically available.
  • Gerard Ellis and Robert Levinson (Eds.) ``Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Peirce: A Conceptual Graphs Workbench", University of Maryland, August 19, 1994.
  • Robert Levinson and Gerard Ellis (Eds.) ``Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Peirce: A Conceptual Graphs Workbench", Quebec City, Canada, August 7, 1993.
  • Gerard Ellis and Robert Levinson (Eds.) ``Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Peirce: A Conceptual Graphs Workbench", Las Cruces, New Mexico, July 10, 1992.