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These systems are designed to provide access to existing interpretations and identify their similarities and differences. To this end, we propose an approach to formally representing interpretations. In particular, we develop an ontology of observations aimed at capturing, through what we call observational vocabularies, what interpreters claim about the texts that they interpret. We distinguish between different types of observations, in particular, basic observations, which represent specific and domain-dependent claims (e.g., regarding the analysis of literary characters\u2019 traits), and observations such as assertion, denial, support, and defeat to document more nuanced claims. We also introduce formal mechanisms that can be used to analyze particular (sets of) observations, texts, and so on. 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