=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3428/paper1
|storemode=property
|title=Preferential Temporal Description Logics with Typicality and Weighted Knowledge Bases
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3428/paper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-3428
|authors=Mario Alviano,Laura Giordano,Daniele Theseider Duprรฉ
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/cilc/Alviano0D23
}}
==Preferential Temporal Description Logics with Typicality and Weighted Knowledge Bases==
Preferential Temporal Description Logics
with Typicality and Weighted Knowledge Bases
Mario Alviano1 , Laura Giordano2,* and Daniele Theseider Duprรฉ2
1
DEMACS, University of Calabria, Via Bucci 30/B, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy
2
DISIT, University of Piemonte Orientale, Viale Michel 11, 1512 Alessandria, Italy
Abstract
In this paper we define an extension of a temporal description logic with a typicality operator, to allow for
defeasible reasoning in a preferential temporal description logic. We show that a preferential extension of
LTL๐โ๐ with typicality can be polynomially encoded into LTL๐โ๐ , and the approach allows borrowing
some decidability and complexity results. We consider as well a multi-preferential temporal semantic for
temporal weighted knowledge bases with typicality.
1. Introduction
Preferential extensions of Description Logics (DLs) allow reasoning with exceptions through
the identification of prototypical properties of individuals or classes of individuals. Defeasible
inclusions are allowed in the knowledge base, to model typical, defeasible, non-strict properties
of individuals. Their semantics extends DL semantics with a preference relation among domain
individuals, along the lines of the preferential semantics introduced by Kraus, Lehmann and
Magidor [1, 2] (KLM for short). Preferential extensions and rational extensions of the description
logic ๐โ๐ [3] have been studied [4, 5], and several different closure constructions have been
developed [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11], inspired by Lehmann and Magidorโs rational closure [2] and
Lehmannโs lexicographic closure [12]. More recently, multi-preferential extensions of DLs have
been developed, by allowing multiple preference relations with respect to different concepts
[13, 14, 15], as the semantic for ranked and for weighted knowledge bases with typicality.
Temporal extensions of Description Logics are very well-studied in DLs literature, see the
survey on temporal DLs and their complexity and decidability [16]. While preferential extensions
of LTL with defeasible temporal operators have been recently studied [17, 18, 19] to enrich
temporal formalisms with non-monotonic reasoning features, preferential extensions (and, more
specifically, typicality based extensions) of temporal DLs have not been considered so far, up to
CILCโ23: 38th Italian Conference on Computational Logic, June 21โ23, 2023, Udine, Italy
*
Corresponding author.
" mario.alviano@unical.it (M. Alviano); laura.giordano@uniupo.it (L. Giordano); dtd@uniupo.it (D. Theseider
Duprรฉ)
~ https://alviano.net/ (M. Alviano); https://people.unipmn.it/laura.giordano/ (L. Giordano);
https://people.unipmn.it/dtd/ (D. Theseider Duprรฉ)
0000-0002-2052-2063 (M. Alviano); 0000-0001-9445-7770 (L. Giordano); 0000-0001-6798-4380 (D. Theseider
Duprรฉ)
ยฉ 2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR
Workshop
Proceedings
http://ceur-ws.org
ISSN 1613-0073
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
our knowledge.
To fill this gap, in this paper we develop a preferential extension of Temporal DLs, based on
the approach proposed in [5] to define a description logic with typicality. More specifically, we
build over a temporal extension of ๐โ๐, LTL๐โ๐ [16], based on Linear Time Temporal Logic
(LTL), and develop its extension with typicality.
Generalizing the approach in [5], we define a preferential temporal description logic LTL๐โ๐
with typicality, LTLT ๐โ๐ , by adding to the language a typicality operator T that selects the
most typical instances of a concept ๐ถ. The resulting temporal DL with typicality allows for
representing temporal properties of concepts which admit exceptions, e.g., for instance that,
normally, professors teach at least a course until the end of the semester, although exceptions are
permitted.
We show that the preferential extension of LTL๐โ๐ with typicality can be polynomially
encoded into LTL๐โ๐ , and this approach allows borrowing decidability and complexity results
from LTL๐โ๐ . We also consider a multi-preferential extension of LTL๐โ๐ , by allowing a concept-
wise preferential semantics where different preferences are associated to different concepts. The
encoding also applies to this case. We discuss possible extensions of the closure constructions
for weighted knowledge bases [14, 20] to the temporal case. It allows for a finer grained
representation of the plausibility of prototypical properties of a concept, including temporal
properties, by assigning weights to the different typicality properties.
2. The Description Logic ๐โ๐
In this section we recall the syntax and semantics of the description logic ๐โ๐ [3] and of its
temporal extension LTL๐โ๐ [16].
2.1. ๐โ๐
Let ๐๐ถ be a set of concept names, ๐๐
a set of role names and ๐๐ผ a set of individual names. The
set of ๐โ๐ concepts (or, simply, concepts) can be defined inductively as follows:
โข ๐ด โ ๐๐ถ , โค and โฅ are concepts;
โข if ๐ถ and ๐ท are concepts, and ๐ โ ๐๐
, then ๐ถ โ ๐ท, ๐ถ โ ๐ท, ยฌ๐ถ, โ๐.๐ถ, โ๐.๐ถ are concepts.
An ๐โ๐ knowledge base (KB) ๐พ is a pair (๐ฏ , ๐), where ๐ฏ is a TBox and ๐ is an ABox. The
TBox ๐ฏ is a set of concept inclusions (or subsumptions) ๐ถ โ ๐ท, where ๐ถ, ๐ท are concepts. The
ABox ๐ is a set of assertions of the form ๐ถ(๐) and ๐(๐, ๐) where ๐ถ is a concept, ๐ and ๐ are
individual names in ๐๐ผ and ๐ a role name in ๐๐
.
An ๐โ๐ interpretation is defined as a pair ๐ผ = โจฮ, ยท๐ผ โฉ where: ฮ is a domain โ a set whose
elements are denoted by ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ, ๐ง, . . . , and ยท๐ผ is an extension function that maps each concept name
๐ถ โ ๐๐ถ to a set ๐ถ ๐ผ โ ฮ, each role name ๐ โ ๐๐
to a binary relation ๐๐ผ โ ฮ ร ฮ, and each
individual name ๐ โ ๐๐ผ to an element ๐๐ผ โ ฮ. It is extended to complex concepts:
โค๐ผ = ฮ, โฅ๐ผ = โ
, (ยฌ๐ถ)๐ผ = ฮโ๐ถ ๐ผ ,
(โ๐.๐ถ) = {๐ฅ โ ฮ | โ๐ฆ.(๐ฅ, ๐ฆ) โ ๐๐ผ and ๐ฆ โ ๐ถ ๐ผ },
๐ผ (๐ถ โ ๐ท)๐ผ = ๐ถ ๐ผ โฉ ๐ท๐ผ ,
(โ๐.๐ถ)๐ผ = {๐ฅ โ ฮ | โ๐ฆ.(๐ฅ, ๐ฆ) โ ๐๐ผ โ ๐ฆ โ ๐ถ ๐ผ }, (๐ถ โ ๐ท)๐ผ = ๐ถ ๐ผ โช ๐ท๐ผ .
The notions of satisfiability of a KB in an interpretation and entailment are defined as follows:
Definition 1 (Satisfiability and entailment). Given an ๐โ๐ interpretation ๐ผ = โจฮ, ยท๐ผ โฉ:
- ๐ผ satisfies an inclusion ๐ถ โ ๐ท if ๐ถ ๐ผ โ ๐ท๐ผ ;
- ๐ผ satisfies an assertion ๐ถ(๐) (resp., ๐(๐, ๐)) if ๐๐ผ โ ๐ถ ๐ผ (resp., (๐๐ผ , ๐๐ผ ) โ ๐๐ผ ).
Given a KB ๐พ = (๐ฏ , ๐), an interpretation ๐ผ satisfies ๐ฏ (resp. ๐) if ๐ผ satisfies all inclusions in
๐ฏ (resp. all assertions in ๐); ๐ผ is a model of ๐พ if ๐ผ satisfies ๐ฏ and ๐.
A concept inclusion ๐น = ๐ถ โ ๐ท (resp., an assertion ๐ถ(๐), ๐(๐, ๐)), is entailed by ๐พ, written
๐พ |= ๐น , if for all models ๐ผ =โจฮ, ยท๐ผ โฉ of ๐พ, ๐ผ satisfies ๐น .
Given a knowledge base ๐พ, the subsumption problem is the problem of deciding whether an
inclusion ๐ถ โ ๐ท is entailed by ๐พ. The satisfiability problem is the problem of deciding whether
a knowlwdge base ๐พ has a model. The concept satisfiability problem is the problem of deciding,
for a concept ๐ถ, whether ๐ถ is consistent with ๐พ (i.e., whether there exists a model ๐ผ of ๐พ, such
that ๐ถ ๐ผ ฬธ= โ
).
3. The Temporal Description Logic LTL๐โ๐
The concepts of the temporal description logic LTL๐โ๐ can be formed from standard constructors
using the temporal operators โ (next), ๐ฐ (until), โ (eventually) and โก (always) of linear time
temporal logic (LTL). The set of temporally extended concepts is as follows:
๐ถ ::= ๐ด | โค | โฅ | ๐ถ โ ๐ท | ๐ถ โ ๐ท | ยฌ๐ถ | โ๐.๐ถ | โ๐.๐ถ | โ๐ถ | ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ท | โ๐ถ | โก๐ถ
where ๐ด โ ๐๐ถ , and ๐ถ and ๐ท are temporally extended concepts.
A temporal interpretation for LTL๐โ๐ is a pair โ = (ฮโ , ยทโ ), where ฮโ is a nonempty
domain; ยทโ is an extension function that maps each concept name ๐ถ โ ๐๐ถ to a set ๐ถ โ โ N ร ฮโ ,
each role name ๐ โ ๐๐
to a relation ๐โ โ N ร ฮโ ร ฮโ , and each individual name ๐ โ ๐๐ผ to
an element ๐โ โ ฮโ . Following [16] we assume individual names to be rigid, i.e., having the
same interpretation at any time point. In a pair (๐, ๐) โ N ร ฮโ , ๐ represents a time point and
๐ a domain element; (๐, ๐) โ ๐ถ โ means that ๐ is an instance of concept ๐ถ at time point ๐, and
similarly for (๐, ๐1 , ๐2 ) โ ๐โ . Function ยทโ is extended to complex concepts as follows:
โคโ = N ร ฮโ โฅโ = โ
(ยฌ๐ถ)โ = (N ร ฮโ )โ๐ถ โ
(๐ถ โ ๐ท)โ = ๐ถ โ โฉ ๐ทโ (๐ถ โ ๐ท)โ = ๐ถ โ โช ๐ทโ
(โ๐.๐ถ)โ = {(๐, ๐ฅ) โ N ร ฮโ | โ๐ฆ.(๐, ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ) โ ๐โ and (๐, ๐ฆ) โ ๐ถ โ }
(โ๐.๐ถ)โ = {(๐, ๐ฅ) โ N ร ฮโ | โ๐ฆ.(๐, ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ) โ ๐โ โ (๐, ๐ฆ) โ ๐ถ โ }
(โ๐ถ)โ = {(๐, ๐ฅ) โ N ร ฮโ | (๐ + 1, ๐ฅ) โ ๐ถ โ }
(โ๐ถ)โ = {(๐, ๐ฅ) โ N ร ฮโ | โ๐ โฅ ๐ such that (๐, ๐ฅ) โ ๐ถ โ }
(โก๐ถ)โ = {(๐, ๐ฅ) โ N ร ฮโ | โ๐ โฅ ๐, (๐, ๐ฅ) โ ๐ถ โ }
(๐ถ๐ฐ๐ท)โ = {(๐, ๐ฅ) โ N ร ฮโ | โ๐ โฅ ๐ s.t. (๐, ๐ฅ) โ ๐ทโ
and (๐, ๐ฅ) โ ๐ถ โ , โ๐ (๐ โค ๐ < ๐)}
While the definition above assumes a constant domain (i.e., that the domain elements are the
same at all time points), in the following we will also consider the case with expanding domains,
when there is a sequence of increasing domains ฮโ0 โ ฮโ1 โ . . ., one for each time point.
Let a TBox ๐ฏ be a set of concept inclusions ๐ถ โ ๐ท, where ๐ถ, ๐ท are temporally extended
concepts, as above. It has been proven that concept satisfiability in LTL๐โ๐ w.r.t. TBoxes is
E XP T IME-complete, both with expanding domains [21] and with constant domains [16].
The complexity of other cases and, specifically, the cases of temporal ABoxes [22] and temporal
TBoxes (which allow temporal operators over concept inclusions), have as well been studied in
the literature, and we refer to [16] for a discussion of the result and algorithms for satisfiability
checking.
In the next section we develop a preferential extension of LTL๐โ๐ . For simplicity, we focus
on the case of non-temporal ABox and TBox, i.e., with the TBox containing a set of concept
inclusions ๐ถ โ ๐ท, where ๐ถ, ๐ท are temporally extended concepts, but without temporal operator
applied to the concept inclusions themselves.
4. LTLT
๐โ๐ : A Preferential Extension of LTL๐โ๐ with Typicality
In this section we define an extension of the temporal description logic LTL๐โ๐ allowing
typicality concepts of the form T(๐ถ), where ๐ถ is a LTL๐โ๐ concept. The instances of T(๐ถ) are
intended to be the typical instances of a concept ๐ถ. Following [5], we call T a typicality operator.
The concept T(๐ถ) can be used on the left hand side of concept inclusions to express defeasible
properties of a concept ๐ถ of the form T(๐ถ) โ ๐ท, meaning that the typical instances of concept
๐ถ are also instances of concept ๐ท (normally, ๐ถโs are ๐ทโs). We can therefore distinguish between
properties that hold for all instances of ๐ถ, expressed by strict inclusions (๐ถ โ ๐ท), and those
that only hold for the typical instances of ๐ถ, expressed by typicality or defeasible inclusions
(T(๐ถ) โ ๐ท).
Unlike [5, 9], where a typicality operator was introduced for ๐โ๐, here we do not require that
the typicality operator only occurs on the left hand side of concept inclusions, and this choice
is in agreement with [23, 24]. As usual, we assume that the typicality operator T cannot be
nested. Extended concepts can be built by combining the concept constructors in LTL๐โ๐ with
the typicality operator. They can freely occur in concept inclusions, such as, for instance, in the
following ones:
T(Professor ) โ (โteaches.Course)๐ฐSemester _End
โlives_in.Town โ Young โ T(โโgranted .Loan)
The first inclusion means that normally professors teach at least a course until the end of the
semester (but exceptions are allowed). The second one means that persons living in town and
being young are typical in the set of individuals eventually being granted a loan.
We define a preferential extension, LTLT ๐โ๐ , of LTL๐โ๐ . As for the preferential extension of
the logic ๐โ๐ [5], we define the semantics of LTLT ๐โ๐ in terms of preferential models, extending
ordinary models of LTLT ๐โ๐ with a preference relation < on the domain, whose intuitive meaning
is to compare the โtypicalityโ of domain elements, that is to say, ๐ฅ < ๐ฆ means that domain element
๐ฅ is more typical than ๐ฆ. The typical instances of an (extended) concept ๐ถ (the instances of
T(๐ถ)) are the instances ๐ฅ of ๐ถ that are minimal with respect to the preference relation < (i.e., no
other instances of ๐ถ are preferred to ๐ฅ).
In the following, we will consider a collection of preference relations <๐ , one for each time
point ๐. They will be defined as the projections of a relation < over the single time points.
Definition 2 (Preferential temporal interpretations for LTLT T
๐โ๐ ). An LTL๐โ๐ interpretation is a
โ โ
structure โณ = (ฮ , <, ยท ) where:
โข (ฮโ , ยทโ ) is a temporal interpretation as for LTL๐โ๐ , as introduced in Section 3, but the
interpretation function ยทโ is extended to typicality concepts (see below);
โข the relation < โ N ร ฮโ ร ฮโ associates to each time point ๐ a preference <๐ over the
domain ฮโ such that, for all ๐ โ N, <๐ = {(๐, ๐) | (๐, ๐, ๐) โ <} and relation <๐ is an
irreflexive, transitive and well-founded relation over ฮโ ;
โข the interpretation of typicality concepts T(๐ถ) is defined as follows:
(T(๐ถ))โ = {(๐, ๐) | ๐ โ Min <๐ (๐ถ๐โ ), for ๐ โ N}
where ๐ถ๐โ = {๐ | (๐, ๐) โ ๐ถ โ } are the instances of ๐ถ at time point ๐, and Min <๐ (๐) =
{๐ข : ๐ข โ ๐ and โ๐ง โ ๐ s.t. ๐ง <๐ ๐ข}.
Furthermore, we say that relation <๐ is well-founded if, for all ๐ โ ฮโ , for all ๐ฅ โ ๐, either
๐ฅ โ Min <๐ (๐) or โ๐ฆ โ Min <๐ (๐) such that ๐ฆ <๐ ๐ฅ.
For each timepoint ๐, relation <๐ has the properties of preference relation in KLM preferential
interpretations [1, 2]. When modularity also holds for <๐ (i.e., for all ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ, ๐ง โ ฮโ , ๐ฅ <๐ ๐ฆ
implies (๐ฅ <๐ ๐ง or ๐ง <๐ ๐ฆ)), <๐ has the properties of preference relation in rational (or ranked)
KLM interpretations [2]. In the following, however, we will not restrict to modular relations <๐ .
The relation < can be regarded as a function associating to each time point ๐ a preference
relation <๐ over ฮโ , i.e., <๐ โ ฮโ ร ฮโ . At each time point ๐, the typicality concept T(๐ถ) is
interpreted as the set of maximally preferred ๐ถ-elements, according to the preference relation <๐
for time point ๐.
As for the temporal language LTL๐โ๐ [16], although in this section we have used a con-
stant domain ฮโ in a preferential temporal interpretation, expanding domains could have been
considered as well, by letting a domain ฮโ๐ , for each time point ๐.
The notions of satisfiability and model of a knowledge base can be easily extended to LTLT ๐โ๐
with non-temporal ABox and TBox. As ๐ is a non-temporal ABox, the assertions in ๐ are
evaluated at time point 0. On the other hand, all inclusions in the (non-temporal) TBox ๐ฏ have to
be satisfied at all time points.
Definition 3 (Satisfiability in LTLT T โ โ
๐โ๐ ). Given an LTL๐โ๐ interpretation โณ = โจฮ , <, ยท โฉ, โณ
โ โ
satisfies a concept inclusion ๐ถ โ ๐ท iff ๐ถ โ ๐ท ; โณ satisfies an assertion ๐ถ(๐) (resp., ๐(๐, ๐))
iff (0, ๐โ ) โ ๐ถ โ (resp., (0, ๐โ , ๐โ ) โ ๐โ ).
Given an LTLT ๐โ๐ knowledge base ๐พ = (๐ฏ , ๐), the interpretation โณ is a model of ๐พ if
โณ satisfies all concept inclusions in ๐ฏ and all assertions in ๐. An LTLT ๐โ๐ knowledge base
๐พ = (๐ฏ , ๐) is satisfiable in LTLT if a model โณ = โจฮ โ , <, ยทโ โฉ of ๐พ exists.
๐โ๐
The fact that each irreflexive and transitive relation <๐ on ฮ is well-founded guarantees that,
for any <๐ , there are no infinite descending chains of elements of ฮโ .
At any time point ๐ there is a possibly different relation <๐ , which allows to identify the
typical instances of a concept ๐ถ at any time point ๐. As observed in [5] for ๐โ๐ with typicality,
the meaning of T can be split into two parts: for any element ๐ฅ โ ฮโ , ๐ฅ โ (T(๐ถ))๐ผ when (i)
๐ฅ โ ๐ถ ๐ผ , and (ii) there is no ๐ฆ โ ๐ถ ๐ผ such that ๐ฆ < ๐ฅ (note that, for ๐โ๐ with typicality, there is a
single preference relation < on the domain ฮโ ). In order to isolate the second part of the meaning
of T, one can introduce a Gรถdel-Lรถb modality (for which we use the symbol โก< , while โก is used
for the temporal operator always), and interpret the preference relation < as the inverse of the
accessibility relation of this modality. Well-foundedness of < ensures that typical elements of ๐ถ ๐ผ
exist whenever ๐ถ ๐ผ ฬธ= โ
, by avoiding infinitely descending chains of elements. The interpretation
of โก< in โณ is as follows: (โก< ๐ถ)๐ผ = {๐ฅ โ ฮโ | for every ๐ฆ โ ฮโ , if ๐ฆ < ๐ฅ then ๐ฆ โ ๐ถ ๐ผ }. For
the case of ๐โ๐ with typicality, it has been proven that ๐ฅ is a typical instance of ๐ถ if and only if
it is an instance of ๐ถ and โก< ยฌ๐ถ, that is: given an interpretation โณ, a concept ๐ถ and an element
๐ฅ โ ฮ, ๐ฅ โ (T(๐ถ))๐ผ iff ๐ฅ โ (๐ถ โ โก< ยฌ๐ถ)๐ผ [5].
This modal interpretation of the typicality operator T in terms of a Gรถdel-Lรถb modality โก<
has been used to define an encoding of ๐ฎโ๐ชโ๐ฌ๐ T into ๐ฎโ๐ชโ๐ฌ [23] as well as for encoding a
preferential extension of ๐ฎโโ๐ฌ into ๐ฎโโ๐ฌ, by introducing a new role ๐< in the DL language
to represent the preference relation. In the next section, we will extend this encoding to the
temporal case for ๐โ๐.
5. Encoding of LTLT
๐โ๐ in LTL๐โ๐
In this section we show that reasoning in LTLT ๐โ๐ can be reduced polynomially to reasoning in
LTL๐โ๐ . The idea, as reported above, is to define an encoding of the typicality concept in the
temporal description logic, by interpreting T(๐ถ) as a formula ๐ด โ โก< ยฌ๐ด, where the accessibility
relation of the modality โก< is the inverse of the preference relation.
The interpretation of T(๐ถ) at a time point ๐ is to be evaluated based on the preference relation
< at time point ๐, i.e., based on <๐ . We represent the preference relation < in a preferential
temporal interpretation โณ (see Definition 2) by introducing a new role ๐< in the language. Also,
we represent a concept T(๐ถ) with the concept ๐ถ โ โกยฌ๐ถ , where โกยฌ๐ถ is a new concept name
which is intended to capture the meaning of formula โก< ยฌ๐ถ (dropping the < to make notation
lighter). Finally, we will introduce additional concept inclusion axioms to capture the interplay
between role ๐< and the new concepts โกยฌ๐ถ , as well as to enforce the properties of the preference
relations <๐ .
Let ๐พ = (๐ฏ , ๐) be a LTLT ๐โ๐ knowledge base and let ๐๐ถ , ๐๐
, ๐๐ผ be the set of con-
cept names, role names and individual names in the language of ๐พ. We define the encoding
๐พ โฒ = (๐ฏ โฒ , ๐โฒ ) of ๐พ in LTL๐โ๐ over the concept names, role names and individual names in
๐๐ถโฒ , ๐๐
โฒ , ๐๐ผโฒ , as follows.
The language of ๐พ โฒ contains all the individual names, concept names and role names in
the language of ๐พ (i.e., ๐๐ถ โ ๐๐ถโฒ , ๐๐
โ ๐๐
โฒ , ๐๐ผ โ ๐๐ผโฒ ). For each T(๐ด) occurring in ๐พ
(where ๐ด is any, possibly complex, temporally extended concept), we introduce in ๐๐ถโฒ a new
atomic concept โกยฌ๐ด and, for each inclusion ๐ถ โ ๐ท โ ๐ฏ , we introduce in ๐ฏ โฒ the inclusion
๐ถ โฒ โ ๐ทโฒ , where ๐ถ โฒ and ๐ทโฒ are obtained from ๐ถ and ๐ท, respectively, by replacing the occurrence
of any concept T(๐ด) with the concept ๐ด โ โกยฌ๐ด . Note that concept โกยฌ๐ด may have a different
interpretation at each time point.
As mentioned above, to capture the properties of the โก< modality, a new role name ๐< is
introduced to represent the relation < in preferential models, and the following concept inclusion
axioms are introduced in ๐ฏ โฒ , for all concepts ๐ด such that T(๐ด) occurs in ๐ฏ :
โกยฌ๐ด โ โ๐< .(ยฌ๐ด โ โกยฌ๐ด ) (1)
ยฌโกยฌ๐ด โ โ๐< .(๐ด โ โกยฌ๐ด ) (2)
The first inclusion accounts for the transitivity of the preference relations <๐ . The second
inclusion accounts for the smoothness (see [2]) of the preference relations <๐ , i.e., the fact that if
an element is not a typical ๐ด element at a time point ๐, then there must be a typical ๐ด element
preferred to it according to <๐ . The property holds for a well-founded relation <๐ .
We also define ABox ๐โฒ by replacing each occurrence of the concept T(๐ด) in any individual
assertions ๐ถ(๐) in ๐, with the concept ๐ดโโกยฌ๐ด , and by including in ๐โฒ all the resulting assertions.
All the assertions of the form ๐
(๐, ๐) โ ๐ are included unaltered in ๐โฒ .
Proposition 1. For a temporal knowledge base ๐พ = (๐ฏ , ๐) in LTLT โฒ
๐โ๐ , let ๐พ be the encoding
of ๐พ in LTL๐โ๐ . It holds that ๐พ is satisfiable in LTL๐โ๐ iff ๐พ โฒ is satisfiable in LTL๐โ๐ .
T
As it is clear, the encoding above is polynomial in the size of the knowledge base ๐พ and, more
precisely, if |๐พ| is the size of ๐พ, the size of ๐พ โฒ is ๐(|๐พ|).
As a consequence of Proposition 1, the decidability and complexity results that have been
proven to hold for the temporal description logic LTL๐โ๐ also extend to the preferential temporal
description logic LTLT ๐โ๐ . Note that our encoding does not depend on assumptions on constant
domains, and it works as well for expanding domains.
In particular, for non-temporal TBoxes ๐ฏ , that is, a set of concept inclusions ๐ถ โ ๐ท, where
๐ถ, ๐ท are LTLT ๐โ๐ concepts, the following holds as a consequence of the encoding above and of
the results for LTL๐โ๐ with expanding domains and with constant domains [21, 16].
Corollary 1. Concept satisfiability in LTLT
๐โ๐ w.r.t. TBoxes is E XP T IME -complete, both with
expanding domains and with constant domains.
Note that this encoding which exploits ๐โ๐ constructs can as well be adopted for more
expressive logics, although for expressive DLs alternative encodings might be viable. The
preferential extension LTLT ๐โ๐ and its encoding in LTL๐โ๐ can as well be considered for
knowledge bases with temporal TBoxes and temporal ABoxes, with minor modifications of the
proof of Proposition 1. While we leave the detailed treatment of these cases for future work, in
the next sections, we move to consider a multi-preferential semantics for temporal ๐โ๐ with
typicality, as well as possible closure constructions for these extension.
6. A Multi-preferential Temporal Extension of ๐โ๐
Following [13, 14, 20], we can consider a multi-preferential extension of temporal ๐โ๐ with
T,๐
typicality LTLT
๐โ๐ . Let us call it ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฟ๐โ๐ , by associating a preference relation <๐ถ๐ with each
concept ๐ถ๐ in a set of distinguished concepts ๐ = {๐ถ1 , . . . , ๐ถ๐ }. The underlying idea is that the
distinguished concepts ๐ถ๐ represent the aspects with respect to which domain individuals are
compared. For instance, Tom may be more typical than Bob as a student (tom ๐๐,๐ (๐ฆ) (4)
Note that <๐๐ถ๐ is a strict modular and well-founded partial order, and all ๐ถ๐ -elements are preferred
wrt <๐ถ๐ to the domain elements which are not instances of ๐ถ๐ . The higher is the weight of an
element wrt ๐ถ๐ (at ๐) the more preferred is the element w.r.t. ๐ถ๐ at time point ๐. In the example
above, ๐๐,๐โ (๐๐๐) = 30 > ๐ โ (๐ก๐๐) = โ70 (for ๐ถ = Emp) and, hence, bob <
๐,๐ ๐ Emp tom, i.e.,
Bob is more typical than Tom as an employee.
Let us define a concept-wise multi-preferential temporal semantics (cw๐ temporal semantics)
for a weighted knowledge base.
Definition 5. A concept-wise multi-preferential temporal model (cw๐ -model) of a weighted
๐ฟ๐ ๐ฟT,๐
๐โ๐ knowledge base ๐พ = โจ๐ฏ , ๐ฏ๐ถ1 , . . . , ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ , ๐โฉ over ๐ is a concept-wise multi-preferential
interpretation โณ = โจฮโ , <๐ถ1 , . . . , <๐ถ๐ , <, ยทโ โฉ, such that: for all ๐ = 1, . . . , ๐,
<๐ถ๐ = {(๐, ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ) : ๐ โ N and ๐ฅ <๐๐ถ๐ ๐ฆ},
where each <๐๐ถ๐ is defined from ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ and โจฮโ , ยทโ โฉ, according to condition (4); < is the resulting
global preference relation, as defined in Section 6.1; and โจฮโ , <, ยทโ โฉ satisfies ๐ฏ and ๐ according
to satisfiability in Definition 3.
Based on the notion of cw๐ -model of a KB, the notions of concept-wise entailment (or cw๐ -
entailment) and canonical cw๐ -entailment can be defined in a natural way for weigthed KBs in
๐ฟ๐ ๐ฟT,๐
๐โ๐ , as in the non-temporal case [20].
Let us restrict consideration to canonical models, i.e., models which are large enough to
contain all the relevant domain elements (see [13]). Let Conc ๐พ be the set of all non-temporal
concepts ๐ถ occurring in ๐พ plus their complements ยฌ๐ถ.
Definition 6. Given a ranked knowledge base ๐พ = โจ๐ฏ , ๐ฏ๐ถ1 , . . . , ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ , ๐โฉ a model โณ =
โจฮโ , <๐ถ1 , . . . , <๐ถ๐ , <, ยทโ โฉ of ๐พ is canonical for ๐พ if, for any set of concepts {๐ท1 , . . . , ๐ท๐ } โ
Conc ๐พ such that ๐ท1 โ . . . โ ๐ท๐ is satisfiable with respect to โจ๐ฏ , ๐โฉ, it holds that for all time
points ๐, there exists a domain element ๐ฅ โ ฮโ๐ such that (๐, ๐ฅ) โ ๐ท๐โ for all ๐ = 1, . . . , ๐.
The idea is that, in a canonical model for ๐พ, any conjunction of concepts occurring in ๐พ, or
their complements, when consistent with the TBox ๐ฏ and the ABox ๐ of ๐พ, must have some
instance in the domain at each time point ๐. Existence of canonical interpretations has been
proven in the non-temporal case for knowledge bases which are consistent under the preferential
(or ranked) semantics for typicality [9]. A similar construction can be developed for the temporal
case, exploiting the fact that, in the case we have considered (that of KBs with non-temporal
TBoxes and non-temporal ABoxes), the interaction between the temporal component and the DL
component of the temporal DL is rather limited (see [16]).
Definition 7 (cw๐ -entailment [14]). An inclusion T(๐ถ) โ ๐ท is cw๐ -entailed from a weighted
knowledge base ๐พ if it is satisfied in all canonical cw๐ -models โณ of ๐พ.
The study of the properties of this semantic, such as the KLM properties [2], which have been
studied for description logics with typicality in the non-temporal case, will be considered for
future work, as well as the development of alternative semantic constructions.
8. Conclusions
In this paper we have developed a preferential temporal description logics with typicality LTLT๐โ๐ .
The monotonic logic LTLT ๐โ๐ can be further extended to define a semantics for weighted
knowledge bases, by introducing multiple preferences. The paper discusses these extensions,
showing that the concept-wise multi-preferential semantic in [13] adapts smoothly to the temporal
case.
On a different route, a preferential LTL with defeasible temporal operators has been studied in
[18, 19]. The decidability of meaningful fragments of the logic has been proven, and tableaux
based proof methods for such fragments have been developed [17, 19]. Instead, our approach does
not consider defeasible temporal operators (nor preferences over time points), but it combines
standard LTL operators with the typicality operator in a temporal ๐โ๐ (where preferences are
over the domain elements).
A different approach for combining defeasibility in temporal DL formalism has been proposed
in [27], by combining a temporal action logic [28] for reasoning about actions (whose semantics
is based on a notion of temporal answer set) and an โฐโโฅ ontology. The approach provides a
polynomial encoding of an action theory extended with an โฐโโฅ knowledge base in normal form,
into the language of the temporal action logic. The temporal action logic studied in [28] is based
on an extension of LTL, called Dynamic Linear Time Temporal Logic (DLTL) introduced in [29],
which allows for complex actions. The proof methods for this action logic are based on ASP
encodings of bounded model checking [28, 30], and can then be exploited for reasoning about
actions in an extended action theory. Defeasibility in [27], and in the related work on reasoning
about actions in Description Logics [31, 32, 33] (often not based on temporal logics), is concerned
with the non-monotonicity of the frame problem and, in the literature, different solutions are
explored. Our paper, instead, aims at representing temporal properties of concepts which admit
exceptions, through a notion of typicality, and is not specifically intended for reasoning about
actions.
The encoding of LTLT ๐โ๐ into LTL๐โ๐ provides decidability and complexity results for the
T
monotonic logic LTL๐โ๐ for free. For the multi-preferential case, proof methods for defeasible
temporal reasoning with weighted knowledge bases have to be investigated, possibly for fragments
of ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฟT,๐
๐โ๐ . This will be subject of future work.
Acknowledgments
We thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments. This work was partially sup-
ported by GNCS-INdAM. Mario Alviano was partially supported by Italian Ministry of Research
(MUR) under PNRR project FAIR โFuture AI Researchโ, CUP H23C22000860006, under PNRR
project Tech4You โTechnologies for climate change adaptation and quality of life improvementโ,
CUP H23C22000370006, and under PNRR project SERICS โSEcurity and RIghts in the Cy-
berSpaceโ, CUP H73C22000880001; by Italian Ministry of Health (MSAL) under POS project
RADIOAMICA, CUP H53C22000650006; by the LAIA lab (part of the SILA labs).
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