
RDF Formal Semantics 93
In order to illustrate why this constraint to the applicability of the above
deduction rules is essential, consider the following deduction:
ex:heidrun ex:motherOf ex:sebastian .
_:id1 ex:motherOf ex:sebastian .
se2
Essentially, the proposition “Heidrun is the mother of Sebastian” is weak-
ened to the proposition “Sebastian has a mother.” Furthermore, it would be
possible to make the following deduction
ex:wolfgang ex:marriedTo ex:heidrun .
ex:wolfgang ex:marriedTo _:id1 .
se1
as id1 is introduced by “weakening” the same URI ex:heidrun as in the
previous deduction. Together the two generated triples can be read as “Se-
bastian’s