TY - JOUR
T1 - A mathematical framework for the semantics of symbolic languages representing periodic time
AU - Egidi, Lavinia
AU - Terenziani, Paolo
PY - 2006/3
Y1 - 2006/3
N2 - In several areas, including Temporal DataBases (TDB), Presburger arithmetic has been chosen as a standard reference for the semantics of languages representing periodic time, and to study their expressiveness. On the other hand, the proposal of most symbolic languages in the AI literature has not been paired with an adequate semantic counterpart, making the task of studying the expressiveness of such languages and of comparing them a very complex one. In this paper, we first define a representation language which enables us to handle each temporal point as a complex object enriched with all the structure it is immersed in, and then we use it in order to provide a Presburger semantics for classes of symbolic languages coping with periodicity. Finally, we use the semantics to compare a few AI and TDB symbolic approaches.
AB - In several areas, including Temporal DataBases (TDB), Presburger arithmetic has been chosen as a standard reference for the semantics of languages representing periodic time, and to study their expressiveness. On the other hand, the proposal of most symbolic languages in the AI literature has not been paired with an adequate semantic counterpart, making the task of studying the expressiveness of such languages and of comparing them a very complex one. In this paper, we first define a representation language which enables us to handle each temporal point as a complex object enriched with all the structure it is immersed in, and then we use it in order to provide a Presburger semantics for classes of symbolic languages coping with periodicity. Finally, we use the semantics to compare a few AI and TDB symbolic approaches.
KW - Languages
KW - Presburger arithmetic
KW - Semantics
KW - User-defined periodicity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33744514811&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10472-006-9021-6
DO - 10.1007/s10472-006-9021-6
M3 - Review article
SN - 1012-2443
VL - 46
SP - 317
EP - 347
JO - Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence
JF - Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence
IS - 3
ER -