A Random Set and Prototype Theory Model of Linguistic Query Evaluation

The term computing with words was introduced by Zadeh (Zadeh 1996), (Zadeh 2002) to refer to computation involving natural language expression and queries. Such an approach allows for a high-level and intuitive representation of information which is vital for the development of transparent humanunderstandable decision making software tools. Zadeh proposed a methodology for computing with words incorporating fuzzy set theory and fuzzy quantifiers. Label semantics (Lawry 2004), (Lawry 2006) is an alternative framework for linguistic modeling based on random set theory and where emphasis is given to decisions concerning the appropriateness of labels to describe a particular instance or object. Recent work has demonstrated a clear and natural link between label semantics and the prototype theory of concepts. In this paper we will propose a new methodology for evaluating queries about a database which involve both linguistic expressions and generalized (linguistic) quantifiers. This approach will be based on the combination of prototype theory and random set theory underlying the interpretation of AbsTRACT