Intelligent Processing of an Unrestricted Text in First Order String Calculus

Abstract

First Order String Calculus (FOSC), introduced in this paper, is a generalization of First Order Predicate Calculus (FOPC). The generalization step consists in treating the unrestricted strings, which may contain variable symbols and a nesting structure, similarly to the predicate symbols in FOPC. As a logic programming technology, FOSC, combined with a string unification algorithm and the resolution principle, eliminates the need to invent logical atoms. An important aspect of the technology is the possibility to apply a matching of the text patterns immediately in logical reasoning. In this way the semantics of a text can be defined by string examples, which only demonstrate the concepts, rather than by a previously formalized mathematical knowledge. The advantages of avoiding this previous formalization are demonstrated. We investigate the knowledge representation aspects, the algorithmic properties, the brain simulation aspects, and the application aspects of FOSC theories in comparison with those of FOPC theories. FOSC is applied as a formal basis of logic programming language Sampletalk, introduced in our earlier publications.