Abstract
A key issue in knowledge representation is the representation of hierarchies of concepts. Conceptual Graphs is particularly well suited to this problem, specially when structured descriptions are required for concepts. Descriptions of concepts are represented by conceptual graphs which are used to define types representing the concepts. Hierarchies of concepts are then represented by Aristotelian hierarchies defined on these types. However, Conceptual Graphs formalism becomes inadequate for the representation of concept hierarchies when exceptions occur in property inheritance between concepts. Other logics formalisms also deal with concept hierarchies while offering ways to account for exceptions but they are less intuitive and readable than conceptual graphs. Moreover, conceptual graphs are often used in knowledge representation. Therefore, we propose to extend Conceptual Graphs formalism in order to allow the representation of default taxonomic knowledge. We first show that the classical “default inheritance” approach appears to be inadequate for Conceptual Graphs formalism. We then adopt a “definitional” approach similar to the one pioneered by Coupey and Fouqueré in ALN terminological language where defaults and exceptions are seen as parts of the descriptions of concepts.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
E. Aïmeur, J.G. Ganascia. Elicitation of Taxonomies based on the use of Conceptual Graph Operators. In proc. of the first International Conference on Conceptual Structures. Lecture Notes in AI, 699, Springer-Verlag, pp. 361–380, 1993.
F. Baader, B. Hollunder. Embedding defaults into Terminological Knowledge Representation Formalism. In Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: proc. of the third International Conference, pp. 306–317, Cambridge, MA, 1992.
B. Biebot, A comparison between conceptual graphs and KL-ONE. In proc. of the first International Conference on Conceptual Structures. Lecture Notes in AI, 699, Springer-Verlag, pp. 75–89, 1993.
J. Bournaud, J.G. Ganascia. Conceptual clustering of complex objects: a generalization space based approach. In proc. of the 3rd International Conference on Conceptual Structures. Lecture Notes in AI, 954, Springer-Verlag, pp. 173–187, 1995.
R. Brachman and J.G. Schmolze. An overview of the KL-ONE knowledge representation system. In Cognitive Science, 9(2), pp. 171–216, 1985.
M. Chein, M. Leclere. A Cooperative Program for the Construction of the Concept Type Lattice. In proc. of the 2nd International Conference on Conceptual Structures, proc. supplement, 1994.
P. Coupey, F. Fouqueré. Extending Conceptual Definition with default knowledge. In Computational Intelligence, 13(2), 1997.
F. Domini, M. Lenzerini, D. Nardi, W. Nutt. The complexity of concept language. In Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: 2d International Conference, pp. 151–162, Cambridge, MA, 1991.
G. Ellis. Efficient retrieval from hierarchies of concepts using lattice operations. In proc. of the 1st International Conference on Conceptual Structures. Lecture Notes in AI, 699, Springer-Verlag, pp. 274–293, 1993.
D.W. Etherington, R. Reiter. On Inheritance Hierarchies With Exceptions. In proc. of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Washington, DC, 1983.
C. Fahlman. NETL: a system for representing and using real world knowledge. MIT press, Cambridge, MA, 1979.
C. Fahlman, D.S. Touretzsky, W. van Rogger. Cancellation in a parallel Semantic Network. In proc. of the International join Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 257–263, Vancouver, BC,1981.
C. Faron, Q. Kieu. SATELIT: un outil d'explicitation de connaissances hypermédias. In Actes des Dixièmes Journées d'Aquisition des connaissances, Grenoble, 1995.
C. Froidevaux. Taxonomic Default Theory. In proc. of the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1986.
G.W. Mineau. Structuration des bases de connaissances par généralisation. Ph.D. d'informatique, Université de Montréal, 1990.
L. Padgham, T. Zhang. A Terminological Logic with Defaults: A Definition and an application. In proc. of the 13th International Join Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 663–668, Chambéry, France, 1993.
J. Quantz, V. Royer. A Preference Semantics for Defaults in Terminological Logics. In Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasonning: proc. of the 3rd International Conference, pp. 294–305, Cambridge, 1992.
R. Reiter. A logic for default reasoning. In Artificial Intelligence, 13, 1980.
J.F. Sowa. Conceptual structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co, 1984.
W. Woods. What's in a link? Fondation for semantic networks. In York, A.P.N. ed, Representation and understanding: studies in cognitive science, pp. 35–82, D.G. Bobrow and A.M. Collins, 1975.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Faron, C., Ganascia, JG. (1997). Representation of defaults and exceptions in conceptual graphs formalism. In: Lukose, D., Delugach, H., Keeler, M., Searle, L., Sowa, J. (eds) Conceptual Structures: Fulfilling Peirce's Dream. ICCS 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1257. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0027868
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0027868
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63308-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69424-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive