Disposition / Capacity

Local identifier: xwkont:concept:disposition-capacity Slug: disposition-capacity Editorial status: reviewed Created: 2026-07-06 Modified: 2026-07-06

Scope Note

This crosswalk compares bearer-inherent capacities in the BFO sense: disposition and its etiological subtype function, against candidate analogs in GFO, UFO/OntoUML, SUMO, YAMATO, and GUM.

It does not compare Role or Relator. Those are social/relational positions or truthmakers, not intrinsic capacities. It also does not treat procedure, intention, or other modal-looking lexical neighbors as equivalent just because they sound ability-like.

Checked DOLCE materials (D18, DOLCE-Lite, and DUL) did not yield a confirmed bearer-capacity analogue in the source material read for this pass. That is recorded here as a scoped negative finding, not as a claim about every later DOLCE extension.

Labels, Alternate Labels, and Source Terminology

Role	Label or term	Source	Language	Notes
XwkOnt working label	Disposition / Capacity	XwkOnt	en	Working label for the bearer-inherent realizable-capacity family.
Source term	disposition	BFO	en	Internally-grounded realizable entity; the core bearer-capacity term.
Source term	function	BFO	en	A disposition that exists in virtue of the bearer's physical make-up and realizes processes of a certain sort.
Source term	Function	GFO	en	Teleological universal / conceptual structure, ascribed to realizations or intended realizations.
Source term	mode	UFO / OntoUML proxy	en	Proxy for the UFO mode branch; see intrinsicModeNature and extrinsicModeNature. UFO itself has no IRI scheme.
Source term	Ability	GUM	en	Modal qualification of a process, realized by can.
Source term	GeneralPossibility	GUM	en	Modal qualification of a process, realized by may.
Source term	Intention	GUM	en	Mental-process configuration that captures actively pursuing a determinate aim.
Source term	Procedure	SUMO	en	Sequence-dependent specification.
Source term	function	YAMATO	en	Functional-ontology terminology; no standalone capacity class was confirmed in the fetchable report.

Source Definitions and Contextual Notes

Source	Term or identifier	Dimension	Claim type	Definition, quotation, or paraphrase	Reference	Locator	Notes
BFO	disposition (BFO_0000016)	technical	direct quotation	"A disposition is a realizable entity such that if it ceases to exist then its bearer is physically changed and its realization occurs when and because this bearer is in some special physical circumstances and this realization occurs in virtue of the bearer's physical make-up."	xwkont:ref:bfo-2020	bfo-core.ttl, class BFO_0000016	The core capacity-like term in BFO.
BFO	function (BFO_0000034)	technical	direct quotation	"A function is a disposition that exists in virtue of its bearer's physical make-up and this physical make-up is something the bearer possesses because it came into being either through evolution ... or through intentional design ... in order to realize processes of a certain sort."	xwkont:ref:bfo-2020	bfo-core.ttl, class BFO_0000034	BFO explicitly places function under disposition.
GFO	Function	technical	direct quotation	"A function F is a universal (conceptual structure) defined in purely teleological terms with respect to a given goal G which commonly is ascribed by means of has-function relation to entities that are the realizations of the function F, execute such a realization or are intended to do it."	xwkont:ref:gfo	modules/gfo-base.owl, class https://w3id.org/gfo/base/Function	Teleological, but not bearer-inhering in the BFO sense.
UFO / OntoUML proxy	mode / intrinsicModeNature / extrinsicModeNature	technical	direct quotation	mode: "A particular type of intrinsic property that has no structured value." intrinsicModeNature: "Indicates that the restricted type includes intrinsic mode individuals among its instances." extrinsicModeNature: "Identifies what inheres in a concrete individual and depends on others for its existence."	xwkont:ref:ufo-2021, xwkont:ref:ontouml-vocabulary	UFO paper extraction notes; ontouml.ttl classes ontouml:mode, ontouml:intrinsicModeNature, ontouml:extrinsicModeNature	UFO itself has no IRI scheme; OntoUML is the machine-readable proxy.
GUM	Ability / GeneralPossibility / Intention (linguistic grounding)	philosophical	editorial observation	GUM's modal and intention classes are explicitly embedded in a systemic-functional-linguistic ontology of clause realization, where Ability and GeneralPossibility qualify processes and Intention captures a mental process pursuing a determinate aim.	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	GUM-31.owl, classes Ability, GeneralPossibility, Intention	This row records the source's own theoretical grounding, not a claim that these classes are bearer capacities.
GUM	Ability	technical	direct quotation	"A modal qualification of the process, with respect to the ability to perform that process; typically realized by can."	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	GUM-31.owl, class Ability	Modal/process qualification, not a bearer-inherent capacity class.
GUM	GeneralPossibility	technical	direct quotation	"A general possibility relationship is a modal modification of a process that indicates that the process may occur; it is typically realized using the modal may."	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	GUM-31.owl, class GeneralPossibility	Modal/process qualification, not a bearer-inherent capacity class.
GUM	Intention	technical	direct quotation	"An Intention configuration has a mental process that captures the notion of actively pursuing a determinate aim."	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	GUM-31.owl, class Intention	Mental aim/configuration, not a bearer capacity.
SUMO	Procedure	technical	direct quotation	"A sequence-dependent specification. Some examples are ComputerPrograms, finite-state machines, cooking recipes, musical scores, conference schedules, driving directions, and the scripts of plays and movies."	xwkont:ref:sumo-niles-pease-2001	Merge.kif, class Procedure	A good false friend: procedural specification, not disposition/capacity.
YAMATO	functional ontology / roles	philosophical	direct quotation	"The separation of what to do and how to do is the very philosophy of our functional ontology." The same section adds that roles are defined within a context and are used in defining all the types in YAMATO.	xwkont:ref:yamato-mizoguchi-2010	YAMATO101216.pdf, section 6, "Roles, functions and relations"	This is the clearest YAMATO grounding relevant to the candidate. The fetchable report does not confirm a standalone Function class.
YAMATO	functional ontology (explicit exclusion)	philosophical	direct quotation	"Although we have already developed a convincing functional ontology which is compliant with YAMATO, it is not incorporated into YAMATO because it is too professional for general readers."	xwkont:ref:yamato-mizoguchi-2010	YAMATO101216.pdf, section 6, "Roles, functions and relations"	A direct, explicit statement that a compliant functional ontology exists but is deliberately not incorporated into YAMATO -- the same strength of evidence as DOLCE's "does not formalize functions and roles" (see role.md), not merely an absence-from-the-fetched-report finding.
DOLCE	(none confirmed in checked materials)	technical	editorial observation	Checked D18, DOLCE-Lite, and DUL for a bearer-capacity/disposition analogue and did not confirm one in the materials read for this pass. The checked DOLCE sources discuss qualities, roles, relations, and (in extension literature) function-like notions, but not a confirmed disposition/capacity class.	xwkont:ref:dolce-wonderweb-d18, xwkont:ref:dolce-lite-owl, xwkont:ref:gangemi-dul	checked full text / grep passes; no direct term confirmed	Scoped negative finding, not a universal claim about every possible DOLCE extension.

Source Ontology Correspondences

Correspondence ID	Source ontology	Source term	Source identifier or IRI	Source version	Reference	Inclusion rationale
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:001	BFO	disposition	BFO_0000016	BFO 2020	xwkont:ref:bfo-2020	Core bearer-capacity term in the source most directly aligned with the scope.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:002	BFO	function	BFO_0000034	BFO 2020	xwkont:ref:bfo-2020	Included because BFO treats function as a disposition subtype.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:003	GFO	Function	https://w3id.org/gfo/base/Function	GFO 2024-11-18	xwkont:ref:gfo	Candidate teleological analog; not bearer-inhering in the BFO sense, but too close to ignore.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:004	UFO (OntoUML proxy)	mode	not applicable -- UFO has no IRI scheme; proxy terms are ontouml:mode, ontouml:intrinsicModeNature, and ontouml:extrinsicModeNature	UFO 2021 / OntoUML vocabulary snapshot	xwkont:ref:ufo-2021, xwkont:ref:ontouml-vocabulary	Candidate modality-like analogue; kept because the mode branch is the closest machine-readable UFO family near this scope.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:005	GUM	Ability	http://www.ontospace.uni-bremen.de/ontology/stable/GUM-3.owl#Ability	GUM 3.1	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	Checked because it is the most capacity-like GUM term; excluded from exact matching because it qualifies processes, not bearers.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:006	GUM	GeneralPossibility	http://www.ontospace.uni-bremen.de/ontology/stable/GUM-3.owl#GeneralPossibility	GUM 3.1	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	Checked as a modal neighbor; excluded because it is process-level possibility, not a bearer capacity.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:007	GUM	Intention	http://www.ontospace.uni-bremen.de/ontology/stable/GUM-3.owl#Intention	GUM 3.1	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	Checked because it can look ability-like in ordinary language, but it is a mental-process configuration.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:008	SUMO	Procedure	Procedure	Merge.kif (current SUMO source)	xwkont:ref:sumo-niles-pease-2001	Candidate false friend; sequence specification is not a capacity/disposition. Note also (subclass Procedure Proposition) in Merge.kif -- Procedure sits under SUMO's Proposition, the same abstract-entity branch already crosswalked for Information Artifact/Proposition-Content, and the same systemic pattern role.md/quality.md document for SUMO's Attribute branch.
xwkont:correspondence:disposition-capacity:009	YAMATO	function	not applicable -- YAMATO's own paper explicitly excludes a compliant functional ontology from YAMATO itself (see Source Definitions)	2010 technical report	xwkont:ref:yamato-mizoguchi-2010	Candidate investigated; excluded on direct textual evidence that a compliant functional ontology exists but was deliberately not incorporated into YAMATO, not merely left uncategorized for lack of fetchable evidence.

Semantic Comparison Notes

Note ID	Dimension	Claim type	Note	Supporting references	Confidence
note-001	technical	editorial observation	BFO is the only source in this pass that explicitly defines the scope term as a realizable entity that comes into being and is realized under special conditions. Its function subclass makes the etiological side of the hierarchy explicit, so BFO gives the cleanest bearer-capacity baseline for the crosswalk.	xwkont:ref:bfo-2020	high
note-002	technical	editorial observation	GFO's Function is close to the scope in that it is teleological and tied to realizations or intended realizations, but GFO frames it as a universal/conceptual structure rather than a bearer-inhering realizable entity. That is why it stays related rather than close-match.	xwkont:ref:gfo	high
note-003	technical	editorial observation	The UFO/OntoUML mode branch is modal/property-like, not a capacity hierarchy. mode is an intrinsic property with no structured value, intrinsicModeNature identifies types with intrinsic mode instances, and extrinsicModeNature identifies types that depend on others for existence. That makes the branch adjacent to the scope, but not a confirmed disposition/capacity equivalent.	xwkont:ref:ufo-2021, xwkont:ref:ontouml-vocabulary	medium
note-004	technical	editorial observation	GUM's Ability and GeneralPossibility are process modalities, and Intention is a mental configuration pursuing an aim. Those are linguistically useful modality classes, but they are not bearer-inherent capacities in the BFO sense.	xwkont:ref:gum-owl	high
note-005	philosophical	direct quotation	YAMATO explicitly frames its functional ontology as a distinction between "what to do" and "how to do", and says roles are defined within a context and used in defining all types. That is a functional-theoretic and role-theoretic grounding, not a standalone bearer-capacity class in the fetchable report. The same section goes further, stating directly that a "convincing functional ontology which is compliant with YAMATO" already exists but "is not incorporated into YAMATO because it is too professional for general readers" -- an explicit exclusion, not merely an absence of evidence.	xwkont:ref:yamato-mizoguchi-2010	high
note-006	technical	editorial observation	SUMO's Procedure is sequence-dependent specification. It is a useful false friend because it sounds action-oriented, but its own definition is about specification, not a bearer capacity or disposition. Merge.kif also gives (subclass Procedure Proposition) -- Procedure sits under SUMO's abstract Proposition branch, the same corpus-wide pattern role.md and quality.md already found for SUMO's Attribute branch (BFO/DOLCE/UFO dependent particulars land under SUMO's abstract-entity hierarchy instead).	xwkont:ref:sumo-niles-pease-2001	high
note-007	technical	editorial observation	The checked DOLCE materials did not surface a confirmed disposition/capacity analogue. That negative finding matters because it prevents the crosswalk from treating DOLCE's quality, role, or extension-literature function notions as if they were bearer capacities.	xwkont:ref:dolce-wonderweb-d18, xwkont:ref:dolce-lite-owl, xwkont:ref:gangemi-dul	high

Mapping Assertions or Candidate Relations

Mapping ID	Subject	Relation category	Object	predicate_id	mapping_justification	Status	Confidence	Rationale	Provenance
xwkont:mapping:disposition-capacity:001	BFO:function	related	GFO:Function	skos:relatedMatch	semapv:ManualMappingCuration	candidate	low	Both are teleological and both connect to realizations or intended realizations, but GFO makes function a universal/conceptual structure rather than a bearer-inhering realizable entity. That is enough for a relation, not enough for a stronger match.	xwkont:ref:bfo-2020, xwkont:ref:gfo
xwkont:mapping:disposition-capacity:002	BFO:disposition	unknown	UFO:mode (OntoUML proxy)	none	semapv:ManualMappingCuration	candidate	low	The UFO mode branch is the closest bearer-dependent property family checked here, but the source text and proxy vocabulary do not establish it as a capacity/tendency equivalent. Keep it open rather than forcing a match.	xwkont:ref:ufo-2021, xwkont:ref:ontouml-vocabulary
xwkont:mapping:disposition-capacity:003	BFO:disposition	unknown	GUM:Ability	none	semapv:ManualMappingCuration	candidate	low	GUM's Ability is about the ability to perform a process, not about an enduring bearer capacity. It is close in ordinary language but not structurally the same thing.	xwkont:ref:gum-owl
xwkont:mapping:disposition-capacity:004	BFO:disposition	unknown	GUM:GeneralPossibility	none	semapv:ManualMappingCuration	candidate	low	GeneralPossibility modally qualifies a process as possible, which is still process-centered rather than bearer-centered.	xwkont:ref:gum-owl
xwkont:mapping:disposition-capacity:005	BFO:disposition	explicit-non-equivalence	GUM:Intention	none	semapv:ManualMappingCuration	candidate	high	Intention is a mental-process configuration pursuing an aim. That is a different ontological kind from an intrinsic bearer capacity, so equivalence should not be asserted.	xwkont:ref:gum-owl
xwkont:mapping:disposition-capacity:006	BFO:function	explicit-non-equivalence	SUMO:Procedure	none	semapv:ManualMappingCuration	candidate	high	SUMO's Procedure is a sequence-dependent specification, not a bearer capacity/disposition. The lexical similarity is a false friend.	xwkont:ref:sumo-niles-pease-2001
xwkont:mapping:disposition-capacity:007	BFO:function	explicit-non-equivalence	YAMATO:function	none	semapv:ManualMappingCuration	candidate	high	YAMATO's own paper states directly that a "convincing functional ontology which is compliant with YAMATO" already exists but "is not incorporated into YAMATO because it is too professional for general readers" -- an explicit exclusion of a standalone Function class from YAMATO itself, not merely an absence of evidence in the fetchable report. Equivalence should not be asserted against a class that YAMATO's own authors deliberately chose not to include.	xwkont:ref:yamato-mizoguchi-2010

Uncertainty, Non-Equivalence, and Open Questions

Item ID	Type	Description	Impact	Follow-up
uncertainty-001	uncertainty	DOLCE core/lite/DUL did not yield a confirmed disposition/capacity analogue in the checked material. The closest checked concepts remain quality, role, relation, and extension-literature function notions, all of which are adjacent but not the same as a bearer capacity.	Prevents a false DOLCE equivalence claim.	Re-check any later DOLCE extension only if a source explicitly names a capacity/disposition-like class.
uncertainty-002	uncertainty	The UFO/OntoUML mode branch is still only a proxy-level candidate for this scope. The checked material shows it is intrinsic/extrinsic property language, but not a confirmed disposition/capacity hierarchy.	Keeps mapping-002 at unknown.	Revisit only if a later UFO source or a more direct formalization explicitly treats mode as capacity-like.
uncertainty-003	non-equivalence	GFO Function remains only related because the source treats it as a universal/conceptual structure. Whether future review wants to keep related or downgrade to unknown is an editorial decision, not a source fact.	Affects mapping-001 confidence and relation category.	Confirm the intended XwkOnt threshold for teleological universals versus bearer-inhering capacities.
uncertainty-004	non-equivalence	GUM's Ability, GeneralPossibility, and Intention are process/modality/mental-aim classes, not bearer capacities.	Supports the unknown/explicit-non-equivalence split in the mapping table.	None needed unless a later GUM module introduces a distinct capacity class.
uncertainty-005	~~non-equivalence~~ resolved 2026-07-06, following re-verification of the YAMATO PDF's own text	YAMATO's report talks about functional ontology and roles. Original pass left this at unknown for lack of a standalone Function class; re-verification against the primary source found the paper explicitly states a compliant functional ontology exists but is deliberately not incorporated into YAMATO ("too professional for general readers") -- a direct exclusion, not an absence of evidence.	Resolved mapping-007 from unknown to explicit-non-equivalence, low to high confidence.	Fetch YAMATO's OWL/Hozo files if the registration gate is ever completed, to check whether the separately-developed functional ontology (Kitamura 2006) is later formalized as an IRI-bearing class outside YAMATO proper.
uncertainty-006	non-equivalence	SUMO Procedure is a specification, not a capacity/disposition, so it stays a negative finding rather than a near-equivalence.	Prevents procedure/function drift.	None needed.
uncertainty-007	non-equivalence	BFO's function is safely included only because BFO itself defines it as a disposition subtype; no other source in this pass provided an equally direct bearer-inhering function analogue.	Supports keeping BFO function as the strongest source-side anchor in the crosswalk.	If a future source defines a bearer-inhering function directly, compare it against BFO_0000034 first, not against a looser modal/process class.
uncertainty-008	open-question	GUM Ability/GeneralPossibility (rdfs:subClassOf Possibility, a modal-relation branch) and Intention (rdfs:subClassOf Internal -> SayingAndSensing, a mental-process branch) are both non-entity, non-bearer-capacity classes for structurally the same underlying reason -- neither branch reifies a bearer-inhering property the way BFO's disposition does. Intention was assigned explicit-non-equivalence (mapping-005) while Ability/GeneralPossibility were left at unknown (mapping-003/004), without a stated reason for the differential treatment. This also does not yet invoke role.md's own established finding that GUM systematically reifies this whole family (Role, Relation, Information Artifact) as relations rather than entities -- the same pattern plausibly extends here.	Mapping-003/004 may be under-categorized relative to mapping-005's precedent, or mapping-005 may be over-categorized relative to mapping-003/004 -- reviewer should pick one consistent treatment rather than leaving the split unexplained.	On review, either escalate mapping-003/004 to explicit-non-equivalence to match mapping-005's reasoning, or document explicitly why Intention's mental-process framing warrants a stronger claim than Ability/GeneralPossibility's modal framing.

Provenance and References

• xwkont:ref:bfo-2020 — Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) 2020 — verified directly against bfo-core.ttl (disposition BFO_0000016, function BFO_0000034), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:gfo — General Formal Ontology (GFO) — verified directly against modules/gfo-base.owl (Function), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:ufo-2021 — UFO: Unified Foundational Ontology — verified directly (UFO 2021 paper extraction; no IRI scheme of its own), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:ontouml-vocabulary — OntoUML Vocabulary (UFO proxy for mode stereotypes) — verified directly against the OntoUML vocabulary TTL (mode, intrinsicModeNature, extrinsicModeNature), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:gum-owl — GUM: The Generalized Upper Model (OWL, GUM-3.1) — verified directly against GUM-31.owl (Ability, GeneralPossibility, Intention), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:sumo-niles-pease-2001 — Towards a Standard Upper Ontology (SUMO) — verified directly against current SUMO Merge.kif (Procedure), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:yamato-mizoguchi-2010 — YAMATO: Yet Another More Advanced Top-level Ontology — verified directly (PDF extraction, YAMATO101216.pdf section 6, "Roles, functions and relations"; no standalone Function class confirmed), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:dolce-wonderweb-d18 — WonderWeb Deliverable D18: Ontology Library (final) - DOLCE — checked directly; no bearer-capacity/disposition analogue confirmed (scoped negative finding), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:dolce-lite-owl — DOLCE-Lite OWL Translation — checked directly; no bearer-capacity/disposition analogue confirmed (scoped negative finding), 2026-07-06
• xwkont:ref:gangemi-dul — DOLCE+DnS Ultralite (DUL) OWL Ontology — checked directly; no bearer-capacity/disposition analogue confirmed (scoped negative finding), 2026-07-06

Review History

Review ID	Date	Outcome	Notes
xwkont:review:disposition-capacity:2026-07-06:01	2026-07-06	Passed — advanced draft → reviewed	Content originally drafted by Codex (GPT-5.4-Mini, High) as a trial delegation; every direct quotation independently re-verified against primary sources (bfo-core.ttl, modules/gfo-base.owl, the OntoUML vocabulary TTL, GUM-31.owl, Merge.kif, the YAMATO PDF, DOLCE-Lite/DUL) rather than trusting the draft as-is. Two substantive gaps found and fixed during this review: (1) YAMATO's explicit exclusion of a compliant functional ontology from YAMATO itself was under-cited and mapping-007 was accordingly strengthened from unknown to explicit-non-equivalence; (2) SUMO Procedure's Proposition parent and its parallel to the role.md/quality.md SUMO-abstract-branch pattern was added. A GUM Ability/GeneralPossibility-vs-Intention categorization inconsistency was left open as uncertainty-008 rather than silently resolved. Full evaluation of the delegated-authoring trial recorded separately in a private working note, not part of this review record.

Future Work

• Verify whether any later DOLCE extension introduces a true bearer-capacity analogue that belongs here.
• Fetch YAMATO's OWL/Hozo files if the registration gate is ever completed, so the function candidate can be checked against a formal class instead of the report's functional-ontology prose.
• Re-evaluate whether GFO Function should stay related or be downgraded to unknown after review.
• Add a machine-readable companion only after the review pass confirms the source-side boundaries are stable.