ParserException in Manchester Syntax

Question

I try to use ManchesterOWLSyntaxParser from OWL-API. I need to convert String in Manchester syntax to OWL Axiom, which I can add to existing ontology. The problem is, that I always get Parser Exception (something like bellow):

    Exception in thread "main" org.semanticweb.owlapi.manchestersyntax.renderer.ParserException: Encountered Class: at line 1 column 1. Expected one of:
Class name
Object property name
Data property name
inv
Functional
inverse
InverseFunctional
(
Asymmetric
Transitive
Irreflexive
{
Symmetric
Reflexive

at org.semanticweb.owlapi.manchestersyntax.parser.ManchesterOWLSyntaxParserImpl$ExceptionBuilder.build(ManchesterOWLSyntaxParserImpl.java:2802)
at org.semanticweb.owlapi.manchestersyntax.parser.ManchesterOWLSyntaxParserImpl.parseAxiom(ManchesterOWLSyntaxParserImpl.java:2368)
at Main.main(Main.java:29)

I have read about Manchester syntax at w3c website, but I don't know where the problem is. Maybe manchester parser should be used in different way.

Code with example of string in Manchester syntax, which I have tried to parse.

OWLOntology o = ontologyManager.loadOntologyFromOntologyDocument(new File("family.owl"));
OWLDataFactory df = o.getOWLOntologyManager().getOWLDataFactory();
ManchesterOWLSyntaxParser parser = new ManchesterOWLSyntaxParserImpl(ontologyManager.getOntologyConfigurator(), df);
parser.setStringToParse("Class: <somePrefix#Father>" +
                "   EquivalentTo: \n" +
                "        <somePrefix#Male>\n" +
                "         and <somePrefix#Parent>");
OWLAxiom ax = parser.parseAxiom();

Answer 1

The ontology does not have declarations for the classes and properties in the fragment. The parser cannot parse the fragment without knowing the entities involved.

Just like parsing a whole ontology, classes, properties and data types need declaration axioms in the ontology object.