A model of information retrieval based on a terminological logic

Abstract

According to the logical model of Information Retrieval (IR), the task of IR can be described as the extraction, from a given document base, of those documents d that, given a query q, make the formula d ! q valid, where d and q are formulae of the chosen logic and "!" denotes the brand of logical implication formalized by the logic in question. In this paper, although essentially subscribing to this view, we propose that the logic to be chosen for this endeavour be a Terminological Logic (TL): accordingly, the IR task becomes that of singling out those documents d such that d q, where d and q are terms of the chosen TL and "" denotes subsumption between terms. We call this the terminological model of IR.