Facts

Facts represent the relations between entities, in both events (e.g., X made Y), and states (e.g., X owns Y). In ILEX, we have assumed that all facts are binary (simple relations between two entities), e.g., made-by(J-9999, King01) represents the fact that the designer King made item J-9999. The binary assumption simplifies our architecture, allowing quicker text generation. At a later stage, we may allow more complex fact-representation. Complex sentences can be formed through aggregating together these binary facts.

Each fact has the following fields:

Pred

: The name of the predicate connecting the two entities.

Arg1

: The entity in the relationship which the fact is primarily about. For instance, ``J-999 was designed by Jessie King'' is primarily about J-999, not about King.

Arg2

: The other entity in the relationship. This is sometimes another thing (such as ``Jessie King'') and sometimes a quality.

Various other fields exist which detail the polarity, defeasibility, interest, importance and assimilation of the fact. Facts representing general principles or negations of general misconceptions are expressed using generic entities and can be included in a text just like any other facts.