Model Change for Description Logic Concepts

2026-03-05

AI Summary

This study addresses the problem of revising description logic concepts under a model-theoretic perspective based on assignment interpretations. To handle concept adjustment when new models are introduced, the paper proposes a formal framework of “model change,” defining three primitive operations: eviction, admission, and revision. It demonstrates that revision cannot be decomposed into a combination of eviction and admission, thereby challenging conventional intuition. Employing the formal semantics and model-theoretic methods of the description logics EL and ALC, the work systematically analyzes the semantic properties, compositional characteristics, and realizability of these operations. Key contributions include establishing positive and negative compatibility results for eviction and admission in both EL and ALC, and laying the theoretical foundation for the revision operation in ALC.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Description Logics
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Conceptual Inference and Reasoning
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Satisfiability Modulo Theories

Application Category

• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Models for Web evolution
• Semantics and Knowledge: Methods, algorithms and applications for the development of semantic models, knowledge graphs and other forms of structured data models with machine-interpretable semantics
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

We consider the problem of modifying a description logic concept in light of models represented as pointed interpretations. We call this setting model change, and distinguish three main kinds of changes: eviction, which consists of only removing models; reception, which incorporates models; and revision, which combines removal with incorporation of models in a single operation. We introduce a formal notion of revision and argue that it does not reduce to a simple combination of eviction and reception, contrary to intuition. We provide positive and negative results on the compatibility of eviction and reception for EL and ALC description logic concepts and on the compatibility of revision for ALC concepts.

Problem

• model change
• description logic
• concept revision
• eviction
• reception

Innovation

• model change
• description logic
• concept revision
• eviction
• reception