Iterated Ontology Revision by Reinterpretation

TL;DR

This paper examines how reinterpretation operators can be iteratively applied for ontology revision, especially focusing on their behavior under classical iteration postulates and the challenges with complex triggers.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of reinterpretation operators in the context of iterated ontology revision, adapting classical postulates and identifying conditions for their fulfillment.

Findings

Reinterpretation operators satisfy iteration postulates with atomic triggers.

Complex triggers may violate some iteration postulates.

Different reasons justify why certain postulates are not fulfilled with complex triggers.

Abstract

Iterated applications of belief change operators are essential for different scenarios such as that of ontology evolution where new information is not presented at once but only in piecemeal fashion within a sequence. I discuss iterated applications of so called reinterpretation operators that trace conflicts between ontologies back to the ambiguous of symbols and that provide conflict resolution strategies with bridging axioms. The discussion centers on adaptations of the classical iteration postulates according to Darwiche and Pearl. The main result of the paper is that reinterpretation operators fulfill the postulates for sequences containing only atomic triggers. For complex triggers, a fulfillment is not guaranteed and indeed there are different reasons for the different postulates why they should not be fulfilled in the particular scenario of ontology revision with well developed ontologies.