THE F-LOGIC APPROACH FOR DESCRIPTION LANGUAGES

The Frame-logic (F-logic) approach of [20] is suggested as an underlyi ng framework for description languages. F-logic is shown to provide a full account for description languages without losing the direct seman tics and the descriptive nature. It can support such desirable feature s as high-order role fillers, collective entities, intensions, roles a s first-class objects, and n-ary relationships. Yet, its semantics is first order. In an F-logic based description language, few description constructs are built in, and concepts, roles, and terminological oper ators are definable. The discussion of desirable features in descripti ons is made possible within a single, uniform framework that also cohe rently integrates with logic programming and deductive, object-oriente d database technology. Typical descriptive operators can be defined in the language, thereby yielding a flexible description language in whi ch not all operators must be built in.