Uttance

Uttance  is used to write down assertions.

Unotal 

Uttance  is based on the notation Unotal , but it should be able to comprehend this article without reading about Unotal  before, because Unotal  is very simple: Lists are written in angle brackets, like "< a b c >". Strings are written in square brackets, like "[abc]". The square brackets might be omitted for simple strings, like "abc". Lists might be annotated with attributes: an attribute of a list is written using the equals sign, as in the list "< a = b >": The attribute "a" of this list has the value "b". The type of a list is marked up by an ampersand as in the list "< &integer 2 >", which has the type "integer".

Simple Utterances

Below the utterance “The earth orbits the sun. ” is written in Uttance.

An utterance

< earth =< orbits = sun >>

A visualization of the utterance

          orbits
earth -------------> sun

The first word »earth« in this example is the subject  of the assertion. Following the first equals sign, the attribute »orbits=sun« is given, which contains the relation  »orbits« and the object »sun«.

Multiple Attributes

Multiple attributes for the same subject can bee given without repetition of the subject.

An utterance

< earth =
  < orbits = sun 
    color  = blue >>

A visualization of the utterance

.-------.    orbits
|       |-------------> sun
| earth |    color
|       |-------------> blue
'-------'

Here, an additional attribute »color = blue« is given, which contains the relation  »color« and the object »blue«.

Notion Paths

Subject, relations and objects are all notions. A notion usually is identified by a notion path.

The utterance “The earth orbits the sun. ” is written with full paths as seen below.

An utterance

< < notion concept earth > =
  < < notion relation orbits >=< notion concept sun >>>

A visualization of the utterance

                  relation orbits
concept earth ----------------------> concept sun

This actually is the designation of an assertion, with the concept “earth ” as its subject, the relation “orbits ” as its relation and the concept “sun ” as its object. Concepts and relations are both notions.

Above the fully qualified path names of the notions are used. However, the path prefix "notion concept" is the default for subjects and objects, and the path prefix "notion relation" is the default for relations. Therefore, these prefixes might be omitted.

An utterance

< < earth > =
  < < orbits >=< sun >>>