Abstract
Representation and reasoning of actions is a wide spread area in the domain of Artificial Intelligence. The representation involves natural language instructions, which are based on the linguistic concepts and the reasoning methodology deals with the logical structures. In the computational domain, several theories pertaining to the state-space approach have been proposed to represent and reason out actions. Considering these aspects, this paper provides an account of work from the viewpoint of linguistics, logic and action representation formalisms. Based on this study, this paper then proposes a seven axes categorization scheme, that can be used to compare and analyze different theories.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
A syllogism is a logical argument, where a proposition is inferred from two or more propositions, called as premises.
The three statements “It is obligatory that Smith not murder Jones”, “It is obligatory, that, if Smith murders Jones, Smith murder Jones gently” and “Smith murders Jones” according to Standard Deontic Logic are contradictory (Forrester 1984).
References
Austin J (1962) How to do things with words. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Babawuro U, Beiji Z (2011) Knowledge representation: a general survey and techniques for sound knowledge based systems. Int J Intell Inf Process 2(4):16–22
Beardsley EL (1944) Imperative sentences in relation to indicatives. Philos Rev 53(2):175–185
Brachman RJ, Levesque HJ (eds) (1985) Readings in knowledge representation. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco
Charlow N (2014) Logic and semantics for imperatives. J Philos Log 43(4):617–664
Ciabattoni A, Freschi E, Genco FA, Lellmann B (2015) Mīmāmsā deontic logic: proof theory and applications. In: Automated reasoning with analytic tableaux and related methods—24th international conference, TABLEAUX 2015, Wrocław, Poland, September 21–24, 2015. Proceedings, pp 323–338
Cohen PR, Levesque HJ (1990) Intention is choice with commitment. Artif Intell 42(2–3):213–261
Condoravdi C, Lauer S (2011) Imperatives: meaning and illocutionary force. In: Empirical issues in syntax and semantics 8, to appear, invited talk at Colloque de Syntaxe et Semantique a Paris
Dixon L, Smaill A, Bundy A (2009a) Verified planning by deductive synthesis in intuitionistic linear logic. In: Proceedings of VVPS’09, p 10
Dixon L, Smaill A, Tsang T (2009b) Plans, actions and dialogue using linear logic. J Log Lang Inform 18(2):48
Dovier A, Formisano A, Pontelli E (2011) Perspectives on logic-based approaches for reasoning about actions and change. In: Balduccini M, Son TC (eds) Logic programming, knowledge representation, and nonmonotonic reasoning: essays dedicated to Michael Gelfond on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Springer, Berlin, pp 259–279
Dzifcak J, Scheutz M, Baral C, Schermerhorn PW (2009) What to do and how to do it: translating natural language directives into temporal and dynamic logic representation for goal management and action execution. In: ICRA, pp 4163–4168
Eugenio BD (1998) An action representation formalism to interpret natural language instructions. Comput Intell 14(1):89–133
Fikes RE, Nilsson NJ (1971) STRIPS: a new approach to the application of theorem proving to problem solving. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international joint conference on artificial intelligence, London, pp 608–620
Fischer MJ, Ladner RE (1979) Propositional dynamic logic of regular programs. J Comput Syst Sci 18(2):194–211
Forrester J (1984) Gentle murder, or the adverbial samaritan. J Philos 81:193–197
Fox C (2008) Imperatives: a logic of satisfaction. http://chris.foxearth.org/papers/C-Fox-Satisfaction-2008.pdf
Fox C (2012) Imperatives: a judgemental analysis. Stud Log 100(4):879–905
Geach PT (1958) Imperative and deontic logic. Analysis 18(3):49–56
Girard J-Y (1987) Linear logic. Theor Comput Sci 50:1–102
Goddard IW (2008) A logic and semantics for imperatives. Noesis 187:9–19
Hamblin C (1987) Imperatives. Basil Blackwell, Oxford
Hansen J (2008) Is there a logic of imperatives. In: Deontic Logic in Computer Science, Twentieth Europeon summer school in Logic, Language and Information, Germany
Hansen J (2014) Be nice! how simple imperatives simplify imperative logic. J Philos Log 43(5):965–977
Hare RM (1967) Some alleged differences between imperatives and indicatives. Mind LXXV I(303):309–326
Hofstadter A, McKinsey J (1939) On the logic of imperatives. Philos Sci 6(4):446–457
Hunter A, Liu W (2010) A survey of formalisms for representing and reasoning with scientific knowledge. Knowl Eng Rev 25(02):199–222
Jorgensen J (1937) Imperatives and logic. Erkenntnis 7:288–296
Kenny AJ (1966) Practical inference. Analysis 26:76–79
Kowalski R, Sergot M (1986) A logic-based calculus of events. New Gen Comput 4:67–95
Kungas P (2002). Linear logic theorem proving with abstraction. In: Proceedings of 14th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information, Trento, Italy
Lee H, Tannock J, Williams JS (1993) Logic-based reasoning about actions and plans in artificial intelligence. Knowl Eng Rev 8(2):91–120
Lewis DK (1969) Convention: a philosophical study. Blackwell, Oxford
Manas EL (2010) STRIPS and ADL. In: Seminar selected topics on specifying intelligent agents, im Sommersemester. Available from: http://www.lopez-manas.com/downloads/SeminarPaper_ELM_ADL_AND_STRIPS.pdf
McCarthy J, Hayes PJ (1969) Some philosophical problems from the standpoint of artificial intelligence. In: Meltzer B, Michie D (eds) Machine intelligence, vol 4, pp 463–502. Edinburgh University Press. reprinted in McC90
Patkos T (2010) A formal theory for reasoning about action, knowledge and time. PhD thesis, A thesis submitted to University of Crete-Heraklion, Greece
Pednault EPD (1989) ADL: exploring the middle ground between STRIPS and the situation calculus. In: Proceedings of the first international conference on principles of knowledge representation and reasoning. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc, San Francisco, pp 324–332
Perez-Ramirez M, Fox C (2003a) An axiomatisation of imperatives using hoare logic. In Proceedings of the fifth international workshop on computational semantics, ICWS
Perez-Ramirez M, Fox C (2003b) Imperatives as obligatory and permitted actions. In: Proceedings of the fourth international conference on intelligent text processing and computational linguistics. CI-CLing
Pratt VR (1976) Semantical considerations on floyd-hoare logic. In: Proceedings of the 17th symposium on foundations of computer science, IEEE. pp 109–121
Reiter R (2001) Knowledge in action: logical foundations for specifying and implementing dynamical systems. The frame problem and the situation calculus. MIT Press, Cambridge
Rescher N (1966) The logic of commands Monographs in modern logic. Routledge & K. Paul, London
Rich E (2010) Artificial intelligence, 3rd edn. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi
Ross A (1941) Imperatives and logic. Theoria 7:53–71
Russell P, Norvig P (2009) Artificial intelligence: a modern approach, 2nd edn. Pearson Education, New York
Searle J (1976) A classification of illocutionary acts. Lang Soc 5(1976):1–23
Segerberg K (1990) Validity and satisfaction in imperative logic. Notre Dame J Formal Log 31(2):203–221
Shanahan M, Bz LS (1995) A circumscriptive calculus of events. Artif Intell 77:249–284
Sosa E (1966) The logic of imperatives1. Theoria 32(3):224–235
Sosa E (1967) The semantics of imperatives. Am Philos Q 4(1):57–64
Srinivasan B (2014) Mīmāmsā inspired representation of actions (MIRA). PhD thesis, A thesis submitted to Anna University, India
Srinivasan B, Parthasarathi R (2012) A formalism for action representation inspired by mīmāsā. J Intell Syst 21(1):45–77
Srinivasan B, Parthasarathi R (2013) An intelligent task analysis approach for special education based on mira. J Appl Log 11(1):137–145
Thielscher M (2011) A unifying action calculus. Artif Intell 175:120–141
Trentelman K (2009) Survey of knowledge representation and reasoning systems. Technical report, DTIC Document
van Benthem J, van Ditmarsch H, van Eijck J, Jaspars J (2012) Logic in action. http://www.logicinaction.org/docs/lia.pdf
van Eijck J (2000) Making things happen. Stud Log 66(1):41–58
van Harmelen F, van Harmelen F, Lifschitz V, Porter B (2007) Handbook of knowledge representation. Elsevier Science, San Diego
von Wright GH (1971) Norm and action: a logical enquiry, 1st edn. Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, London
Vranas P (2008) New foundation for imperative logic i: logical connectives, consistency and quantifiers. Nous 42:529–572
Vranas PB (2011) New foundations for imperative logic: pure imperative reference. Mind 120(478):369–446
Vranas PB (2014) Natural deduction for imperative logic i: sentential pure imperative logic. In: 12th International conference on deontic logic and normative systems, Belgium
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Srinivasan, B., Parthasarathi, R. A survey of imperatives and action representation formalisms. Artif Intell Rev 48, 263–297 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-016-9501-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-016-9501-y