Querying with Łukasiewicz logic

Abstract

In this paper we present, by way of case studies, a proof of concept, based on a prototype working on a automotive data set, aimed at showing the potential usefulness of using formulas of Łukasiewicz propositional logic to query databases in a fuzzy way. Our approach distinguishes itself for its stress on the purely linguistic, contraposed with numeric, formulations of queries. Our queries are expressed in the pure language of logic, and when we use (integer) numbers, these stand for shortenings of formulas on the syntactic level, and serve as linguistic hedges on the semantic one. Our case-study queries aim first at showing that each numeric-threshold fuzzy query is simulated by a Łukasiewicz formula. Then they focus on the expressing power of Łukasiewicz logic which easily allows for updating queries by clauses and for modifying them through a potentially infinite variety of linguistic hedges implemented with a uniform syntactic mechanism. Finally we shall hint how, already at propositional level, Łukasiewicz natural semantics enjoys a degree of reflection, allowing to write syntactically simple queries that semantically work as meta-queries weighing the contribution of simpler ones.