An automatic approach is described for the semantic analysis and conversion of video annotation metadata (e.g., Video Event Markup Language or “VEML” metadata) to propositional graphs suitable for analysis by an analogical reasoning system (ARS). Also as described herein, a system architecture implements this conversion while maintaining semantic consistency from annotation through results reporting. Further, the techniques herein leverage the same ontology to populate options for an annotation tool, provide the rules for the metadata-to-propositional graph mapping, and provide the basis for comparison in an analogical reasoning algorithm.