FUZZY EXTENSION OF INHERITANCE HIERARCHIES

In this paper, we present a fuzzy extension of inheritance hierarchies . The purpose of this extension is to provide a more refined construct that facilitates the representation of relations among concepts under uncertainty conditions. The extension is done in two steps. First, th e synonymy relation is incorporated in the inheritance hierarchy, resu lting in a new construct denoted a concept-network. Second, the relati ons of the concept-network are fuzzified, yielding a new construct den oted a fuzzy concept-network. We show how a fuzzy concept-network can be interpreted as a collection of inheritance hierarchies. Thus simpli city, which is an important characteristic of inheritance hierarchies, is preserved. We discuss how fuzzy concept-networks can be used in th e application of reusable software retrieval in object-oriented softwa re development.