Why is it not possible to represent transitive closure in First Order Logic?
I am learning about translating from Description logic to FOL. In description logic, it is possible to have transitive closure but i am wondering how it is possible in FOL. I found that it is not possible with FOL. The reason I found is " as a consequence of compactness theorem, it is not possible". I couldn't understand its meaning.
The context is as follows:
Given relation symbols $R, \overline R$, suppose there were a formula $\phi(R,\overline R)$ expressing that $\overline R$ is the transitive closure of $R$. Consider furthermore the constant symbols $c_1, c_2$ and construct the theory comprising $\phi(R,\overline R), c_1 \mathrel{\overline R} c_2$, and for each $n \in \Bbb N = \Bbb Z_{\ge 0}$: $$\neg (\exists x_1\ldots x_n : c_1 \mathrel R x_1 \mathrel R \cdots \mathrel R x_n \mathrel R c_2)$$ where I abused some notation for brevity's sake. This is manifestly inconsistent.
By the Compactness Theorem, a finite set of these is already inconsistent. It does not require a lot of thought, however, to see that any finite set is consistent.
Thus $\phi$ cannot exist.