Extending the expressive power of semantic networks

摘要

“Factual knowledge” used by natural language processing systems can be conveniently represented in the form of semantic networks. Compared to a “linear” representation such as that of the Predicate Calculus however, semantic networks present special problems with respect to the use of logical connectives, quantifiers, descriptions, and certain other constructions. Systematic solutions to these problems will be proposed, in the form of extensions to a more or less conventional network notation. Predicate Calculus translations of network propositions will frequently be given for comparison, to illustrate the close kinship of the two forms of representation.