Language theory and expert systems

Abstract

Some remarks on the problem of knowledge representation and processing, as recognized in connection with the use of computers in the scientific research work, emphasizes the relevance of these problems for the studies on both the theory of languages and the expert system. A consideration of the common traits in the recent history of these studies, with reference to the use of computers on texts in natural language motivates the introduction of set theoretic and algebraic methods, suitable for applications in the analysis and in the automatic treatment of languages, based on the concept of model sets and on relational structures suggested from the connections between syntax and semantics evidenced in some example of sub-languages corresponding to theories of different classes of physical phenomena. Some details of these methods are evidenced, which have already successfully used or whose applications appears suggestive of interesting development.