PRUF - A Language for the Representation of Meaning in Natural Languages

PRUF is based on the premise tha t the uncer­ t a i n t y in the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f a p r o p o s i t i o n in a n a t u r a l language i s p o s s i b i l i s t i c ra the r than prob­ a b i l i s t i c i n na tu re . This imp l i es tha t a p ropos i ­ t i o n , p, of the form "X is F" where X is the name of an ob jec t and F is a fuzzy subset of a universe of d iscourse U, t r ans la tes in PRUF i n t o an expres­ s i o n , P, which def ines a procedure whose domain is the set of poss ib ly fuzzy r e l a t i o n s in a database. Ac t ing on these r e l a t i o n s , P y i e l d s a p o s s i b i l i t y d i s t r i b u t i o n (or a set o f p o s s i b i l i t y d i s t r i b u t i o n s ) which charac ter izes the i n f o r m a t i o n , I ( p ) , conveyed by p.