Reasoning with rules in a multiple inheritance semantic network with exceptions

摘要

A new data structure describes an inheritance network with exceptions, augmented with rules attached to nodes in the network, a background context of rules and information, and an optional prioritization of links in the network. A process that determines which rules apply to classes (nodes) in the taxonomy exploits the structure of the network, in particular specificity and path prioritization, to get preferred maximally consistent subsets of rules that apply at specified nodes.