
Chapter 3
RDF Formal Semantics
After having dealt with the RDF(S) language in the previous sections, we
now attend to its semantics. Our explanations closely follow the official W3C
RDF semantics specification document [Hay04].
Before that, we will briefly explain why the definition of a formal semantics
became necessary (note that in the early days of RDF, there was no explicit,
mathematically defined semantics) and the advantages it brings about.
3.1 Why Semantics?
The term semantics (from Greek σηµαντ ικoς “significant”) is used in many
different contexts (like logic, linguistics, or programming languages to name
just three). Probably the most appropriate