… there is no single kind of roles … (F. Loebe)
Examples
student, president, symptom, hypothesis, culprit, residue, breather, military target
Definitions
BFO Definition
X is a role iff
X is a realizable entity
X exists because there is some single bearer that is in some special physical, social, or institutional set of circumstances in which this bearer does not have to be
X is not such that, if it ceases to exist, then the physical make-up of the bearer is thereby changed
from: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000023
DOLCE Definition
X is a role iff X is an anti-rigid and founded concept, i.e.,
some instances of X may stop being instances of X
X’s definition involves (at least) another concept Y such that for each entity classified by X, there is an entity classified by Y which is external to it.
from: https://cdn.aaai.org/Symposia/Fall/2005/FS-05-08/FS05-08-017.pdf
GFO Definition
X is a role iff there is player Y and context Z such that
Y plays X
X occurs in context Y.
from: Abstract vs. social roles - Towards a general theoretical account of roles | Applied Ontology
OMG/IDMP Definition
X is a role iff X is a named specific behavior of something participating in a particular context.
YAMATO Definition
X is a role if X is an entity that is played by another entity in a context.
from: https://doi.org/10.3233/AO-210257
Selected papers