Conflict-Based Inconsistency-Tolerant Query Answering

Abstract

In this paper, we place ourselves in the context of inconsistency-tolerant query answering over lightweight ontologies, which aims to query a set of conflicting facts using an ontology that represents generic knowledge about a particular domain. Existing inconsistency-tolerant semantics typically consist in selecting some of (maximal) consistent subsets of facts, called repairs. We explore a novel strategy to select the most relevant repairs based on the stratification of the assertional base into priority levels that we automatically induce from the ontology. We propose a method that exploits conflict statistical regularities between facts to induce an embedding, in which each fact is represented by a vector. Based on Euclidean distances between facts, we classify the assertions from the most reliable to the least important ones. We then use these distances to define relevant repairs. Interestingly enough, we show that the obtained repair is done in polynomial time.