Competency Question : How to resolve disjointness –caused by a subsumption– by defining a hybrid class while maintaining the semantic of existing knowledge?

Process: 1) The pattern defines a hybrid class as a union of the definitions of the disjoint classes involved in the inconsistency to be resolved; 2) The pattern defines a subsumption between the most specific common super-class of the disjoint classes involved in the inconsistency and the hybrid class created; 3) The pattern defines a subsumption between the hybrid class and the sub-class on which the change causing the inconsistency is applied.

ID of the sub-class (sub_classID). ID of the first disjoint class (ClsDisj1ID). ID of the second disjoint class (ClsDisj2ID). ID of the most specific common super-class of the disjoint classes involved (Common_super_classID).

{Animal ⊑Fauna-Flora, Plant ⊑Fauna-Flora, Carnivorous-Plant ⊑Plant, Plant ⊑ Not(Animal)}

If we apply a change to the ontology defining Carnivorous-Plant class as a sub-class of class Animal we cause a disjointness inconsistency as the class Carnivorous-Plant and the class Animal are disjointed. The proposed pattern propose a resolution alternative to this kind of inconsistency

Then, create a sub-class relation between the hybrid class created and a common super-class of the classes Animal and Plant. And finally, substitute the sub-class relation between the classes Animal and Carnivorous-Plant by a subsumption between the classes Carnivorous-Plant and Animal_Plant.

Process: 1) The pattern defines a class Animal_Plant as a union of the definitions of the disjoint classes Animal and Plant; 2) The pattern defines a subsumption between the most specific common super-class of the disjoint classes Fauna-Flora and the hybrid class created Animal_Plant; 3) The pattern defines a subsumption between the hybrid class Animal_Plant and the sub-class Carnivorous-Plant on which the change causing the inconsistency is applied.