Today, there is a need to develop natural language processing (NLP) systems from deeper linguistic approaches. Although there are many NLP applications which can work without taking into account any linguistic theory, this type of system can only be described as “deceptively intelligent”. On the other hand, however, those computer programs requiring some language comprehension capability should be grounded in a robust linguistic model if they are to display the expected behaviour. The purpose of this book is to examine and discuss recent work in meaning and knowledge representation within theoretical linguistics and cognitive linguistics, particularly research which can be reused to model NLP applications.

In Artificial Intelligence, it is often said that the representation of knowledge is the key to the design of robust intelligent systems. In one form or another the principles of Knowledge Representation are fundamental to work in natural language processing, computer vision, knowledge-based expert systems, and other areas. The papers reprinted in this volume have been collected to allow the reader with a general technical background in AI to explore the subtleties of this key subarea. These seminal articles, spanning a quarter-century of research, cover the most important ideas and developments in the representation field. The editors introduce each paper, discuss its relevance and context, and provide an extensive bibliography of other work. "Readings in Knowledge Representation" is intended to serve as a complete sourcebook for the study of this crucial subject.

This series will include monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal, or machine. Its scope is intended to span the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychol ogy through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental capabilities of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and computer science. While primary emphasis will be placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental, and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. The problems posed by metaphor and analogy are among the most challenging that confront the field of knowledge representation. In this study, Eileen Way has drawn upon the combined resources of philosophy, psychology, and computer science in developing a systematic and illuminating theoretical framework for understanding metaphors and analogies. While her work provides solutions to difficult problems of knowledge representation, it goes much further by investigating some of the most important philosophical assumptions that prevail within artificial intelligence today. By exposing the limitations inherent in the assumption that languages are both literal and truth-functional, she has advanced our grasp of the nature of language itself. J.R.F.

Most researchers to date in artificial intelligence has been based on the knowledge representation hypothesis, that is, the assumption that in any artificial intelligence (AI) programme there is a separate module which represents the information that the programme has about the world. As a result, a number of so-called knowlege representation formalisms have been developed for representing this kind of information in a computer.

Knowledge representation is perhaps the most central problem confronting artificial intelligence. Expert systems need knowledge of their domain of expertise in order to function properly. Computer vlslOn systems need to know characteristics of what they are "seeing" in order to be able to fully interpret scenes. Natural language systems are invaluably aided by knowledge of the subject of the natural language discourse and knowledge of the participants in the discourse. Knowledge can guide learning systems towards better understanding and can aid problem solving systems in creating plans to solve various problems. Applications such as intelligent tutoring. computer-aided VLSI design. game playing. automatic programming. medical reasoning. diagnosis in various domains. and speech recogOltlOn. to name a few. are all currently experimenting with knowledge-based approaches. The problem of knowledge representation breaks down into several subsidiary problems including what knowledge to represent in a particular application. how to extract or create that knowledge. how to represent the knowledge efficiently and effectively. how to implement the knowledge representation scheme chosen. how to modify the knowledge in the face of a changing world. how to reason with the knowledge. and how tc use the knowledge appropriately in the creation of the application solution. This volume contains an elaboration of many of these basic issues from a variety of perspectives.

Recording knowledge in a common framework that would make it possible to seamlessly share global knowledge remains an important challenge for researchers. This brief examines several ideas about the representation of knowledge addressing this challenge. A widespread general agreement is followed that states uniform knowledge representation should be achievable by using ontologies populated with concepts. A separate chapter is dedicated to each of the three introduced topics, following a uniform outline: definition, organization, and use. This brief is intended for those who want to get to know the field of knowledge representation quickly, or would like to be up to date with current developments in the field. It is also useful for those dealing with implementation as examples of numerous operational systems are also given.

"This is an extraordinarily lucid book. I am not sure that there is anyone who can do this sort of thing better than Jen Webb. It is a gift to students; extremely accessible yet complex and sophisticated in its treatment of theories and concepts of representation." - Jim McGuigan, Loughborough University Understanding Representation offers a contemporary, coherent and genuinely interdisciplinary introduction to the concept of representation. Drawing together the full range of ideas, practices, techniques and disciplines associated with the subject, this book locates them in a historical context, presents them in a readable fashion, and shows their relevance to everyday life in an engaging and accessible manner. Readers will be shown how to develop a sophisticated attitude to meaning, and understand the relationship to truth and identity that is brought into focus by communicative practices. With chapters on linguistic and political representation, art and media, and philosophical and cognitive approaches, this book: Guides readers through complex theoretical terrain with a highly readable and refreshing writing style. Explains the techniques and perspectives offered by semiotics, discourse analysis, poetics, politics, narratology, visual culture, cognitive theory, performance theory and theories of embodied subjectivity. Covers the new ideas and practices that have emerged since the work of Barthes, Eco and Foucault - especially communication and meaning-making in the digital environment, and the new paradigms of understanding associated with cognitive theories of identity and language. Teaches readers how to interpret and interrogate the world of signs in which they live. Understanding Representation provides students across the social sciences and humanities with an invaluable introduction to what is meant by ′representation′.

Natural language is the means through which humans convey meaning to each other - each word or phrase is a label, or name, for an internal representation of a concept. This internal representation is built up from repeated exposure to particular examples, or instances, of a concept. The way in which we learn that a particular entity in our environment is a "bird" comes from seeing countless examples of different kinds of birds. and combining these experiences to form a menial representation of the concept. Consequently, each individual's understanding of a concept is slightly different, depending on their experiences. A person living in a place where the predominant types of birds are ostriches and emus will have a different representation birds than a person who predominantly sees penguins, even if the two people speak the same language. This thesis presents a semantic knowledge representation that incorporates this fuzziness and context-dependence of concepts. In particular, this thesis provides several algorithms for learning the meaning behind text by using a dataset of experiences to build up an internal representation of the underlying concepts. Furthermore, several methods are proposed for learning new concepts by discovering patterns in the dataset and using them to compile representations for unnamed ideas. Essentially, these methods learn new concepts without knowing the particular label - or word - used to refer to them. Words are not the only way in which experiences can be described - numbers can often communicate a situation more precisely than words. In fact, many qualitative concepts can be characterized using a set of numeric values. For instance, the qualitative concepts of "young" or "strong" can be characterized using a range of ages or strengths that are equally context-specific and fuzzy. A young adult corresponds to a different range of ages from a young child or a young puppy. By examining the sorts of numeric values that are associated with a particular word in a given context, a person can build up an understanding of the concept. This thesis presents algorithms that use a combination of qualitative and numeric data to learn the meanings of concepts. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates that this combination of qualitative and quantitative data enables more accurate and precise learning of concepts.

An Introduction to Knowledge Engineering presents a simple but detailed exp- ration of current and established work in the ?eld of knowledge-based systems and related technologies. Its treatment of the increasing variety of such systems is designed to provide the reader with a substantial grounding in such techno- gies as expert systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, case-based reasoning systems, data mining, intelligent agents and the associated techniques and meth- ologies. The material is reinforced by the inclusion of numerous activities that provide opportunities for the reader to engage in their own research and re?ection as they progress through the book. In addition, self-assessment questions allow the student to check their own understanding of the concepts covered. The book will be suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in computing science and related disciplines such as knowledge engineering, arti?cial intelligence, intelligent systems, cognitive neuroscience, robotics and cybernetics. vii Contents Foreword vii 1 An Introduction to Knowledge Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Section 1: Data, Information and Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Section 2: Skills of a Knowledge Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Section 3: An Introduction to Knowledge-Based Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2 Types of Knowledge-Based Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Section 1: Expert Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Section 2: Neural Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Section 3: Case-Based Reasoning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Section 4: Genetic Algorithms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Section 5: Intelligent Agents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Section 6: Data Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 3 Knowledge Acquisition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 4 Knowledge Representation and Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Section 1: Using Knowledge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Section 2: Logic, Rules and Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Section 3: Developing Rule-Based Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Section 4: Semantic Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .