Superproperty

Superproperty is a conceptual term used in ontology engineering and the Semantic Web to describe a property that is more general than another property. If a property P is a subproperty of a property Q, then Q is a superproperty of P. The relation is established in RDF Schema and OWL through the subPropertyOf predicate, and superproperty is effectively the inverse of that relation. Although many vocabularies do not define a separate built-in “superproperty” predicate, the term is useful for discussing property hierarchies and generalization.

Formally, if P rdfs:subPropertyOf Q, then P inherits the characteristics and inferences of Q, and Q is a superproperty of P. Reasoners can infer transitive chains: if P rdfs:subPropertyOf Q and Q rdfs:subPropertyOf R, then P rdfs:subPropertyOf R, making R a superproperty of P as well. This enables data to be queried and reasoned at different levels of abstraction.

Examples illustrate the concept. In a bibliographic ontology, hasAuthor could be a subproperty of hasContributor, so hasContributor is the superproperty of hasAuthor. In a geographic dataset, hasCity could be a subproperty of locatedIn, making locatedIn the superproperty.

Practical use of superproperties includes query generalization, data integration, and reasoning over property hierarchies. Users should note that “superproperty” is a descriptive term rather than a separate OWL construct; the formal mechanism is the subPropertyOf relation and its inferred hierarchies. See also subPropertyOf, property hierarchy, RDF Schema, and OWL.