Inheritance in a Hierarchy of Theories

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 1993

Authors

Gabriel David (Author) FEUP; António Porto (Author) Other

Conference proceedings International

Title: Progress in Artificial Intelligence, 6th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence, EPIA '93, Porto, Portugal, October 6-8, 1993, Proceedings

Pages: 77-92

Indexing

Scopus - 0 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-008-NSJ

DOI: 10.1007/3-540-57287-2_39

Abstract (EN): This paper1 contains a proposal for a knowledge representation formalism based on a taxonomy of theories. It aims at clarifying the notions of inheritance and dependency among properties and classes, which are mixed together in the ¿inheritance networks¿ formalism, while also providing more expressiveness. A model-theoretic semantics in terms of sets of individuals is presented, which is parametric on the characterization of specificity. The case most thoroughly presented is rule inheritance which builds on the assumption that only facts have the force to impose overriding. A double denotation for classes, corresponding to two nested sets, is the key for interpreting defaults and exceptions. The problem of ambiguity propagation in the resulting system is addressed in the context of a discussion of the relationship between it and inheritance nets. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1993.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific