Hypothetical
From OpenCog
RelEx uses the hypothetical feature HYP to indicate truth assertions which are hypothetical. This typically occurs in one of several different ways: in assertive questions, in certain dependent clauses, and in statements about the future.
For example, the question "Fred is dead?" is an assertive question, and Fred's being dead is hypothetical. Thus, the following is generated:
_predadj(Fred, dead) TRUTH-QUERY-FLAG(dead, T) HYP(dead, T)
to indicate that "deadness" is uncertain -- if it was certain, there'd be no point in asking a question.
Statements can be hypothetical as well. For example, in the sentence "John says you like swimming", the words "like" and "swimming" both get marked as hypothetical: John may be lying, or John may be in error about your likes and dislikes. Therefore the claim that "you like swimming", appearing as a clause, is only hypothetical.
In general, predictions about the future are also hypothetical. Thus, in the sentence "The dog will eat it.", the verb "eat" gets marked as being hypothetical -- the dog hasn't eaten it yet, and there are no assurances that it will happen -- only that it could happen.
