LBase: Semantics for Languages of the Semantic Web

This document presents a framework for specifying the semantics for the languages of the Semantic Web. Some of these languages (notably RDF and OWL) are currently in various stages of development and we expect others to be developed in the future. This framework is intended to provide a framework for specifying the semantics of all of these languages in a uniform and coherent way. The strategy is to translate the various languages into a common 'base' language thereby providing them with a single coherent model theory. We describe a mechanism for providing a precise semantics for the Semantic Web Languages (referred to as SWELs from now on). The purpose of this is to define clearly the consequences and allowed inferences from constructs in these languages.