Global SLS-resolution and SLG-resolution are two representative mechanisms for top-down evaluation of the well-founded semantics of general logic programs. Global SLS-resolution is linear for query evaluation but suffers from infinite loops and redundant computations. In contrast, SLG-resolution resolves infinite loops and redundant computations by means of tabling, but it is not linear. The principal disadvantage of a non-linear approach is that it cannot be implemented using a simple, efficient stack-based memory structure nor can it be easily extended to handle some strictly sequential operators such as cuts in Prolog.
In this paper, we present a linear tabling method, called SLT-resolution, for top-down evaluation of the well-founded semantics. SLT-resolution is a substantial extension of SLDNF-resolution with tabling. Its main features include: (1) It resolves infinite loops and redundant computations while preserving the linearity. (2) It is terminating, and sound and complete w.r.t. the well-founded semantics for programs with the bounded-term-size property with non-floundering queries. Its time complexity is comparable with SLG-resolution and polynomial for function-free logic programs. (3) Because of its linearity for query evaluation, SLT-resolution bridges the gap between the well-founded semantics and standard Prolog implementation techniques. It can be implemented by an extension to any existing Prolog abstract machines such as WAM or ATOAM.
Global SLS-resolution is a well-known procedural semantics for top-down computation of queries under the well-founded model. It inherits from SLDNF-resolution the {\em linearity} property of derivations, which makes it easy and efficient to implement using a simple stack-based memory structure. However, like SLDNF-resolution it suffers from the problem of infinite loops and redundant computations. To resolve this problem, in this paper we develop a new procedural semantics, called {\em SLTNF-resolution}, by enhancing Global SLS-resolution with loop cutting and tabling mechanisms. SLTNF-resolut…
We analyze the problem of defining well-founded semantics for ordered logic programs within a general framework based on alternating fixpoint theory. We start by showing that generalizations of existing answer set approaches to preference are too weak in the setting of well-founded semantics. We then specify some informal yet intuitive criteria and propose a semantical framework for preference handling that is more suitable for defining well-founded semantics for ordered logic programs. The suitability of the new approach is convinced by the fact that many attractive properties are satisfied b…
Much work has been done on extending the well-founded semantics to general disjunctive logic programs and various approaches have been proposed. However, these semantics are different from each other and no consensus is reached about which semantics is the most intended. In this paper we look at disjunctive well-founded reasoning from different angles. We show that there is an intuitive form of the well-founded reasoning in disjunctive logic programming which can be characterized by slightly modifying some exisitng approaches to defining disjunctive well-founded semantics, including program tr…
The paper describes an extension of well-founded semantics for logic programs with two types of negation. In this extension information about preferences between rules can be expressed in the logical language and derived dynamically. This is achieved by using a reserved predicate symbol and a naming technique. Conflicts among rules are resolved whenever possible on the basis of derived preference information. The well-founded conclusions of prioritized logic programs can be computed in polynomial time. A legal reasoning example illustrates the usefulness of the approach.
This paper defines an argumentation semantics for extended logic programming and shows its equivalence to the well-founded semantics with explicit negation. We set up a general framework in which we extensively compare this semantics to other argumentation semantics, including those of Dung, and Prakken and Sartor. We present a general dialectical proof theory for these argumentation semantics.
In this paper, we propose a variant of stable model semantics for disjunctive logic programming and deductive databases. The semantics, called minimal founded, generalizes stable model semantics for normal (i.e. non disjunctive) programs but differs from disjunctive stable model semantics (the extension of stable model semantics for disjunctive programs). Compared with disjunctive stable model semantics, minimal founded semantics seems to be more intuitive, it gives meaning to programs which are meaningless under stable model semantics and is no harder to compute. More specifically, minimal fo…
Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院计算机科学研究所）；Linköping University（林雪平大学）
A general framework is proposed for integration of rules and external first order theories. It is based on the well-founded semantics of normal logic programs and inspired by ideas of Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) and constructive negation for logic programs. Hybrid rules are normal clauses extended with constraints in the bodies; constraints are certain formulae in the language of the external theory. A hybrid program is a pair of a set of hybrid rules and an external theory. Instances of the framework are obtained by specifying the class of external theories, and the class of constraint…
Logic programs with aggregates (LPA) are one of the major linguistic extensions to Logic Programming (LP). In this work, we propose a generalization of the notions of unfounded set and well-founded semantics for programs with monotone and antimonotone aggregates (LPAma programs). In particular, we present a new notion of unfounded set for LPAma programs, which is a sound generalization of the original definition for standard (aggregate-free) LP. On this basis, we define a well-founded operator for LPAma programs, the fixpoint of which is called well-founded model (or well-founded semantics) fo…
Data originating from the Web, sensor readings and social media result in increasingly huge datasets. The so called Big Data comes with new scientific and technological challenges while creating new opportunities, hence the increasing interest in academia and industry. Traditionally, logic programming has focused on complex knowledge structures/programs, so the question arises whether and how it can work in the face of Big Data. In this paper, we examine how the well-founded semantics can process huge amounts of data through mass parallelization. More specifically, we propose and evaluate a pa…
Argumentation has proved a useful tool in defining formal semantics for assumption-based reasoning by viewing a proof as a process in which proponents and opponents attack each others arguments by undercuts (attack to an argument's premise) and rebuts (attack to an argument's conclusion). In this paper, we formulate a variety of notions of attack for extended logic programs from combinations of undercuts and rebuts and define a general hierarchy of argumentation semantics parameterised by the notions of attack chosen by proponent and opponent. We prove the equivalence and subset relationships …
Defined by Gelfond in 1991 (G91), epistemic specifications (or programs) are an extension of logic programming under stable models semantics that introducessubjective literals. A subjective literal al-lows checking whether some regular literal is true in all (or in some of) the stable models of the program, being those models collected in a setcalledworld view. One epistemic program may yield several world views but, under the original G91 semantics, some of them resulted from self-supported derivations. During the last eight years, several alternative approaches have been proposed to get rid …
IRIT University of Toulouse（图卢兹大学IRIT研究所）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Universität Potsdam（波茨坦大学）
In a recent line of research, two familiar concepts from logic programming semantics (unfounded sets and splitting) were extrapolated to the case of epistemic logic programs. The property of epistemic splitting provides a natural and modular way to understand programs without epistemic cycles but, surprisingly, was only fulfilled by Gelfond's original semantics (G91), among the many proposals in the literature. On the other hand, G91 may suffer from a kind of self-supported, unfounded derivations when epistemic cycles come into play. Recently, the absence of these derivations was also formalis…
Wright State University（莱特州立大学）；The University of Georgia（佐治亚大学）
We provide a method of translating theories of Nute's defeasible logic into logic programs, and a corresponding translation in the opposite direction. Under certain natural restrictions, the conclusions of defeasible theories under the ambiguity propagating defeasible logic ADL correspond to those of the well-founded semantics for normal logic programs, and so it turns out that the two formalisms are closely related. Using the same translation of logic programs into defeasible theories, the semantics for the ambiguity blocking defeasible logic NDL can be seen as indirectly providing an ambigui…
Abductive logic programming offers a formalism to declaratively express and solve problems in areas such as diagnosis, planning, belief revision and hypothetical reasoning. Tabled logic programming offers a computational mechanism that provides a level of declarativity superior to that of Prolog, and which has supported successful applications in fields such as parsing, program analysis, and model checking. In this paper we show how to use tabled logic programming to evaluate queries to abductive frameworks with integrity constraints when these frameworks contain both default and explicit nega…
Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院软件研究所）；Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)（维也纳工业大学）
Recently, the notions of subjective constraint monotonicity, epistemic splitting, and foundedness have been introduced for epistemic logic programs, with the aim to use them as main criteria respectively intuitions to compare different answer set semantics proposed in the literature on how they comply with these intuitions. In this note, we consider these three notions and demonstrate on some examples that they may be too strong in general and may exclude some desired answer sets respectively world views. In conclusion, these properties should not be regarded as mandatory properties that every…
The well-founded semantics is one of the most widely studied and used semantics of logic programs with negation. In the case of finite propositional programs, it can be computed in polynomial time, more specifically, in O(|At(P)|size(P)) steps, where size(P) denotes the total number of occurrences of atoms in a logic program P. This bound is achieved by an algorithm introduced by Van Gelder and known as the alternating-fixpoint algorithm. Improving on the alternating-fixpoint algorithm turned out to be difficult. In this paper we study extensions and modifications of the alternating-fixpoint a…
Non deterministic applications arise in many domains, including, stochastic optimization, multi-objectives optimization, stochastic planning, contingent stochastic planning, reinforcement learning, reinforcement learning in partially observable Markov decision processes, and conditional planning. We present a logic programming framework called non deterministic logic programs, along with a declarative semantics and fixpoint semantics, to allow representing and reasoning about inherently non deterministic real-world applications. The language of non deterministic logic programs framework is ext…
National ICT Australia（澳大利亚国家信息与通信技术公司）；The University of Melbourne（墨尔本大学）
Answer Set Programming (ASP) is a powerful modelling formalism that is very efficient in solving combinatorial problems. ASP solvers implement the stable model semantics that eliminates circular derivations between Boolean variables from the solutions of a logic program. Due to this, ASP solvers are better suited than propositional satisfiability (SAT) and Constraint Programming (CP) solvers to solve a certain class of problems whose specification includes inductive definitions such as reachability in a graph. On the other hand, ASP solvers suffer from the grounding bottleneck that occurs due …
Shanghai University（上海大学）；University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学）
Approximation fixpoint theory (AFT) provides an algebraic framework for the study of fixpoints of operators on bilattices and has found its applications in characterizing semantics for various classes of logic programs and nonmonotonic languages. In this paper, we show one more application of this kind: the alternating fixpoint operator by Knorr et al. for the study of the well-founded semantics for hybrid MKNF knowledge bases is in fact an approximator of AFT in disguise, which, thanks to the power of abstraction of AFT, characterizes not only the well-founded semantics but also two-valued as…
National ICT Australia（澳大利亚国家信息与通信技术研究院）；University of Melbourne（墨尔本大学）
To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP) Bound Founded Answer Set Programming (BFASP) is an extension of Answer Set Programming (ASP) that extends stable model semantics to numeric variables. While the theory of BFASP is defined on ground rules, in practice BFASP programs are written as complex non-ground expressions. Flattening of BFASP is a technique used to simplify arbitrary expressions of the language to a small and well defined set of primitive expressions. In this paper, we first show how we can flatten arbitrary BFASP rule expressions, to give equivalent BFASP progr…
Well-known principles of induction include monotone induction and different sorts of non-monotone induction such as inflationary induction, induction over well-founded sets and iterated induction. In this work, we define a logic formalizing induction over well-founded sets and monotone and iterated induction. Just as the principle of positive induction has been formalized in FO(LFP), and the principle of inflationary induction has been formalized in FO(IFP), this paper formalizes the principle of iterated induction in a new logic for Non-Monotone Inductive Definitions (ID-logic). The semantics…
The Stable Model Semantics for Higher-Order Logic Programming
Vrije Universiteit Brussel（布鲁塞尔自由大学）；Katholieke Universiteit Leuven（鲁汶大学）；Harokopio University of Athens（雅典哈罗科皮奥大学）；National and Kapodistrian University of Athens（雅典国立与卡波迪斯特里亚大学）
We study fixpoints of operators on lattices. To this end we introduce the notion of an approximation of an operator. We order approximations by means of a precision ordering. We show that each lattice operator O has a unique most precise or ultimate approximation. We demonstrate that fixpoints of this ultimate approximation provide useful insights into fixpoints of the operator O. We apply our theory to logic programming and introduce the ultimate Kripke-Kleene, well-founded and stable semantics. We show that the ultimate Kripke-Kleene and well-founded semantics are more precise then their sta…
Abstract Dialectical Frameworks (ADFs) are argumentation frameworks where each node is associated with an acceptance condition. This allows us to model different types of dependencies as supports and attacks. Previous studies provided a translation from Normal Logic Programs (NLPs) to ADFs and proved the stable models semantics for a normal logic program has an equivalent semantics to that of the corresponding ADF. However, these studies failed in identifying a semantics for ADFs equivalent to a three-valued semantics (as partial stable models and well-founded models) for NLPs. In this work, w…
In [Hitzler and Wendt 2002, 2005], a new methodology has been proposed which allows to derive uniform characterizations of different declarative semantics for logic programs with negation. One result from this work is that the well-founded semantics can formally be understood as a stratified version of the Fitting (or Kripke-Kleene) semantics. The constructions leading to this result, however, show a certain asymmetry which is not readily understood. We will study this situation here with the result that we will obtain a coherent picture of relations between different semantics for normal logi…
Sirius Center, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo（奥斯陆大学信息学系Sirius中心）；Geosiris SAS（Geosiris SAS公司）；Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo（奥斯陆大学地球科学系）；Informatics Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul（南里奥格兰德联邦大学信息学研究所）
Geological modeling currently uses various computer-based applications. Data harmonization at the semantic level by means of ontologies is essential for making these applications interoperable. Since geo-modeling is currently part of multidisciplinary projects, semantic harmonization is required to model not only geological knowledge but also to integrate other domain knowledge at a general level. For this reason, the domain ontologies used for describing geological knowledge must be based on a sound ontology background to ensure the described geological knowledge is integratable. This paper p…
CENTRIA（里斯本新大学科学技术学院信息学系人工智能中心）；Faculdade Ciências e Tecnologias Universidade Nova de Lisboa（里斯本新大学科学技术学院）
Ontologies and rules are usually loosely coupled in knowledge representation formalisms. In fact, ontologies use open-world reasoning while the leading semantics for rules use non-monotonic, closed-world reasoning. One exception is the tightly-coupled framework of Minimal Knowledge and Negation as Failure (MKNF), which allows statements about individuals to be jointly derived via entailment from an ontology and inferences from rules. Nonetheless, the practical usefulness of MKNF has not always been clear, although recent work has formalized a general resolution-based method for querying MKNF w…
Normal forms for logic programs under stable/answer set semantics are introduced. We argue that these forms can simplify the study of program properties, mainly consistency. The first normal form, called the {\em kernel} of the program, is useful for studying existence and number of answer sets. A kernel program is composed of the atoms which are undefined in the Well-founded semantics, which are those that directly affect the existence of answer sets. The body of rules is composed of negative literals only. Thus, the kernel form tends to be significantly more compact than other formulations. …
We examine the meaning and the complexity of probabilistic logic programs that consist of a set of rules and a set of independent probabilistic facts (that is, programs based on Sato's distribution semantics). We focus on two semantics, respectively based on stable and on well-founded models. We show that the semantics based on stable models (referred to as the "credal semantics") produces sets of probability models that dominate infinitely monotone Choquet capacities, we describe several useful consequences of this result. We then examine the complexity of inference with probabilistic logic p…
The fixpoint completion fix(P) of a normal logic program P is a program transformation such that the stable models of P are exactly the models of the Clark completion of fix(P). This is well-known and was studied by Dung and Kanchanasut (1989). The correspondence, however, goes much further: The Gelfond-Lifschitz operator of P coincides with the immediate consequence operator of fix(P), as shown by Wendt (2002), and even carries over to standard operators used for characterizing the well-founded and the Kripke-Kleene semantics. We will apply this knowledge to the study of the stable semantics,…
Part of the theory of logic programming and nonmonotonic reasoning concerns the study of fixed-point semantics for these paradigms. Several different semantics have been proposed during the last two decades, and some have been more successful and acknowledged than others. The rationales behind those various semantics have been manifold, depending on one's point of view, which may be that of a programmer or inspired by commonsense reasoning, and consequently the constructions which lead to these semantics are technically very diverse, and the exact relationships between them have not yet been f…
The paper presents a constructive fixpoint semantics for autoepistemic logic (AEL). This fixpoint characterizes a unique but possibly three-valued belief set of an autoepistemic theory. It may be three-valued in the sense that for a subclass of formulas F, the fixpoint may not specify whether F is believed or not. The paper presents a constructive 3-valued semantics for autoepistemic logic (AEL). We introduce a derivation operator and define the semantics as its least fixpoint. The semantics is 3-valued in the sense that, for some formulas, the least fixpoint does not specify whether they are …
We give a purely model-theoretic characterization of the semantics of logic programs with negation-as-failure allowed in clause bodies. In our semantics the meaning of a program is, as in the classical case, the unique minimum model in a program-independent ordering. We use an expanded truth domain that has an uncountable linearly ordered set of truth values between False (the minimum element) and True (the maximum), with a Zero element in the middle. The truth values below Zero are ordered like the countable ordinals. The values above Zero have exactly the reverse order. Negation is interpret…
We provide a comprehensive elaboration of the theoretical foundations of variable instantiation, or grounding, in Answer Set Programming (ASP). Building on the semantics of ASP's modeling language, we introduce a formal characterization of grounding algorithms in terms of (fixed point) operators. A major role is played by dedicated well-founded operators whose associated models provide semantic guidance for delineating the result of grounding along with on-the-fly simplifications. We address an expressive class of logic programs that incorporates recursive aggregates and thus amounts to the sc…
University of Bremen（不来梅大学）；Norwegian University of Science and Technology（挪威科技大学）
We present a computational model for the semantic interpretation of symmetry in naturalistic scenes. Key features include a human-centred representation, and a declarative, explainable interpretation model supporting deep semantic question-answering founded on an integration of methods in knowledge representation and deep learning based computer vision. In the backdrop of the visual arts, we showcase the framework's capability to generate human-centred, queryable, relational structures, also evaluating the framework with an empirical study on the human perception of visual symmetry. Our framew…
Logic rules and inference are fundamental in computer science and have been studied extensively. However, prior semantics of logic languages can have subtle implications and can disagree significantly, on even very simple programs, including in attempting to solve the well-known Russell's paradox. These semantics are often non-intuitive and hard-to-understand when unrestricted negation is used in recursion. This paper describes a simple new semantics for logic rules, founded semantics, and its straightforward extension to another simple new semantics, constraint semantics, that unify the core …
To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP). In this paper we propose an extension of logic programming (LP) where each default literal derived from the well-founded model is associated to a justification represented as an algebraic expression. This expression contains both causal explanations (in the form of proof graphs built with rule labels) and terms under the scope of negation that stand for conditions that enable or disable the application of causal rules. Using some examples, we discuss how these new conditions, we respectively call "enablers" and "inhibitors", are int…
HEX-programs are an extension of the Answer Set Programming (ASP) paradigm incorporating external means of computation into the declarative programming language through so-called external atoms. Their semantics is defined in terms of minimal models of the Faber-Leone-Pfeifer (FLP) reduct. Developing native solvers for HEX-programs based on an appropriate notion of unfounded sets has been subject to recent research for reasons of efficiency. Although this has lead to an improvement over naive minimality checking using the FLP reduct, testing for foundedness remains a computationally expensive t…
Logic programming has developed as a rich field, built over a logical substratum whose main constituent is a nonclassical form of negation, sometimes coexisting with classical negation. The field has seen the advent of a number of alternative semantics, with Kripke-Kleene semantics, the well-founded semantics, the stable model semantics, and the answer-set semantics standing out as the most successful. We show that all aforementioned semantics are particular cases of a generic semantics, in a framework where classical negation is the unique form of negation and where the literals in the bodies…
Refining Gelfond Rationality Principle: Towards More Comprehensive Foundational Principles for Answer Set Semantics
Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院软件研究所）；Institute of Logic and Computation, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)（维也纳技术大学逻辑与计算研究所）
In this paper we reexamine the place and role of stable model semantics in logic programming and contrast it with a least Herbrand model approach to Horn programs. We demonstrate that inherent features of stable model semantics naturally lead to a logic programming system that offers an interesting alternative to more traditional logic programming styles of Horn logic programming, stratified logic programming and logic programming with well-founded semantics. The proposed approach is based on the interpretation of program clauses as constraints. In this setting programs do not describe a singl…
Hybrid MKNF knowledge bases are one of the most prominent tightly integrated combinations of open-world ontology languages with closed-world (non-monotonic) rule paradigms. The definition of Hybrid MKNF is parametric on the description logic (DL) underlying the ontology language, in the sense that non-monotonic rules can extend any decidable DL language. Two related semantics have been defined for Hybrid MKNF: one that is based on the Stable Model Semantics for logic programs and one on the Well-Founded Semantics (WFS). Under WFS, the definition of Hybrid MKNF relies on a bottom-up computation…
The Australian National University（澳大利亚国立大学）；Australian Centre for Robotic Vision（澳大利亚机器人视觉中心）；Data61 / CSIRO（澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织数据61中心）；University of Technology Sydney（悉尼科技大学）；Tencent AI Lab（腾讯人工智能实验室）；University of Turku（图尔库大学）
Sign language translation (SLT) aims to interpret sign video sequences into text-based natural language sentences. Sign videos consist of continuous sequences of sign gestures with no clear boundaries in between. Existing SLT models usually represent sign visual features in a frame-wise manner so as to avoid needing to explicitly segmenting the videos into isolated signs. However, these methods neglect the temporal information of signs and lead to substantial ambiguity in translation. In this paper, we explore the temporal semantic structures of signvideos to learn more discriminative features…
This papers develops a logical language for representing probabilistic causal laws. Our interest in such a language is twofold. First, it can be motivated as a fundamental study of the representation of causal knowledge. Causality has an inherent dynamic aspect, which has been studied at the semantical level by Shafer in his framework of probability trees. In such a dynamic context, where the evolution of a domain over time is considered, the idea of a causal law as something which guides this evolution is quite natural. In our formalization, a set of probabilistic causal laws can be used to r…
We introduce a formal meta-language for probabilistic programming, capable of expressing both programs and the type systems in which they are embedded. We are motivated here by the desire to allow an AGI to learn not only relevant knowledge (programs/proofs), but also appropriate ways of reasoning (logics/type systems). We draw on the frameworks of cubical type theory and dependent typed metagraphs to formalize our approach. In doing so, we show that specific constructions within the meta-language can be related via bisimulation (implying path equivalence) to the type systems they correspond. …
XNMR is a system designed to explore the results of combining the well-founded semantics system XSB with the stable-models evaluator SMODELS. Its main goal is to work as a tool for fast and interactive exploration of knowledge bases.
