Abstract
This paper presents a formal ontology which intends to facilitate interoperability among agents belonging to software agent systems that use different agent communication languages. The followed design criteria for building the ontology are an elaboration on the “illocutionary force-plus-content” framework of speech acts theory. The ontology is specified in OWL. Reasons are presented through the paper why, in our opinion, an ontology based on speech acts theory and specified in a DL-based language is adequate for formal agent communication. The ontology is divided into three layers: upper, standards and applications, grouping classes by different levels of abstraction. The formalism used in the specification of classes allows automated reasoning for locating classes in the taxonomy and recognizing individuals of classes.