Customizing Semantics for Individuals With Attitudinal HFLTS Possibility Distributions

Abstract

Linguistic computational techniques based on hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS) have been swiftly advanced on various fronts over the past five years. However, one critical issue in the existing theoretical development is that modeling possibility distribution based semantics involves a relatively strict constraint that linguistic terms are uniformly distributed across an HFLTS. Releasing the constraint of uniform HFLTS through which individual semantics could be customized is challenging yet intriguing for participants interested in this topic. Comparative linguistic expressions (CLEs) generated from context-free grammar facilitate flexible and accurate linguistic elicitation, and in consideration of computational simplicity, are transformed into HFLTSs that are machine manipulatable. It is imperative that the precision of customized individual semantics can be significantly improved with respect to different CLEs. This study proposes a novel possibility computation structure for HFLTS possibility distributions based on the linguistic terms similarity measure. The uniquely established linguistic terms in each and every CLE are initially treated as referential items for comparison. Then, possibilities of linguistic terms in a transformed HFLTS can be calculated as their similarity degrees to the predetermined referential item. Subsequently, the interweaving method in which a consistent inner interweaving matrix needs to be constructed is adopted for attitudinal characters to attain appealing degrees characterized in the unit interval. The generated attitudinal HFLTS possibility distributions provide a solution to the problem of modeling individually the semantic implications of CLEs. Several illustrative examples and comparative analyses further demonstrate that individual semantics endowed with attitudinal character model efficiently individual differences in cognitive styles.