Finite State Automata and Simple Conceptual Graphs with Binary Conceptual Relations

We propose a representation of simple conceptual graphs with binary conceptual relations, which is based on finite-state automata. The representation enables the calculation of injective projection as a two-stage process: off-line calculation of the computationally-intensive subsumption checks and encoding of the results as a minimal finite-state automaton, and run-time calculation by look-up in the minimal finite-state automaton using the projection query as a word belonging to the automaton language. This approach is feasible since a large part of the projection calculations does not depend on the run-time query but only on the relatively static statements in the knowledge base.