A Tableau Algorithm for Description Logics with Concrete Domains and General TBoxes

To use description logics (DLs) in an application, it is crucial to identify a DL that is sufficiently expressive to represent the relevant notions of the application domain, but for which reasoning is still decidable. Two means of expressivity that are required by many modern applications of DLs are concrete domains and general TBoxes. The former are used for defining concepts based on concrete qualities of their instances such as the weight, age, duration, and spatial extension. The purpose of the latter is to capture background knowledge by stating that the extension of a concept is included in the extension of another concept. Unfortunately, it is wellknown that combining concrete domains with general TBoxes often leads to DLs for which reasoning is undecidable. In this paper, we identify a general property of concrete domains that is sufficient for proving decidability of DLs with both concrete domains and general TBoxes. We exhibit some useful concrete domains, most notably a sp...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: JAR
• Authors: Carsten Lutz, Maja Milicic
• Keywords: Concrete Domains, Description Logics, General Tboxes, JAR 2007