of concept expressions (or concepts for short) is the smallest inductively defined set such that
Every concept name $C \in \mathcal{N}_C$ is a concept.
If $C$ and $D$ are concepts, and $R \in \mathcal{N}_R$ is a role, then the following expressions are concepts as well: $(\neg C)$, $(C \sqcap D)$, $(C \sqcup D)$, $(\exists R.C)$, and $(\forall R.C)$.
Nothing else is a concept. ■
The set of concepts is the same as for the language $\mathcal{ALC}$. If a concept starts with “(”, we call it a compound concept, otherwise a concept name or atomic concept. Brackets may be omitted for the sake of readability if the concept is still uniquely parsable.
We use the following abbreviations: if $R_1, \dots, R_n$ are roles, and $C$ is a concept, then we define $(\forall R_1 \sqcup \dots \sqcup R_n.C) ={def} (\forall R_1.C) \sqcap \dots \sqcap (\forall R_n.C)$ and $\exists R_1 \sqcup \dots \sqcup R_n.C ={def} (\exists R_1.C) \sqcup \dots \sqcup (\exists R_n.C)$. Additionally, for some $CN \in \mathcal{N}C$ we define $\top ={def} CN \sqcup \neg CN$ and $\bot =_{def} CN \sqcap \neg CN$ (therefore, $\top^\mathcal{T} = \Delta^\mathcal{T}, \bot^\mathcal{T} = \emptyset$).
The set of roles being used within a concept term $C$ is defined:
Definition 2 (Used Roles, roles($C$))
For example, $\text{roles}(\forall R.\exists S.SC \sqcap \exists T.D) = {R, S, T}$.
As already noted, $\mathcal{ALC}_{RA\odot}$ provides role axioms of the form $S \circ T \subseteq R_1 \sqcup \dots \sqcup R_n$. More formally, the syntax of these role axioms is as follows:
Definition 3 (Role Axioms, Role Box) If $S, T, R_1, \dots, R_n \in \mathcal{N}R$, then the expression $S \circ T \subseteq R_1 \sqcup \dots \sqcup R_n$, $n \ge 1$, is called a role axiom. If $ra = S \circ T \subseteq R_1 \sqcup \dots \sqcup R_n$, then $\text{pre}(ra) ={def} (S, T)$ and $\text{con}(ra) ={def} {R_1, \dots, R_n}$. A finite set $\mathfrak{R}$ of role axioms is called a role box. Let $\text{roles}(ra) ={def} {S, T, R_1, \dots, R_n}$, and $\text{roles}(\mathfrak{R}) ={def} \bigcup{ra \in \mathfrak{R}} \text{roles}(ra)$. $\square$
Additionally, a set of global concept inclusion axioms (GCIs) can be specified. A set of these GCIs is called a free TBox: