An Integrated First-Order Theory of Points and Intervals over Linear Orders (Part II)

There are two natural and well-studied approaches to temporal ontology and reasoning: point-based and interval-based. Usually, interval-based temporal reasoning deals with points as a particular case of duration-less intervals. A recent result by Balbiani, Goranko, and Sciavicco presented an explici...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Willem Conradie, Salih Durhan, Guido Sciavicco
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Logical Methods in Computer Science e.V. 2020-04-01
Series:Logical Methods in Computer Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://lmcs.episciences.org/4832/pdf
Description
Summary:There are two natural and well-studied approaches to temporal ontology and reasoning: point-based and interval-based. Usually, interval-based temporal reasoning deals with points as a particular case of duration-less intervals. A recent result by Balbiani, Goranko, and Sciavicco presented an explicit two-sorted point-interval temporal framework in which time instants (points) and time periods (intervals) are considered on a par, allowing the perspective to shift between these within the formal discourse. We consider here two-sorted first-order languages based on the same principle, and therefore including relations, as first studied by Reich, among others, between points, between intervals, and inter-sort. We give complete classifications of its sub-languages in terms of relative expressive power, thus determining how many, and which, are the intrinsically different extensions of two-sorted first-order logic with one or more such relations. This approach roots out the classical problem of whether or not points should be included in a interval-based semantics. In this Part II, we deal with the cases of all dense and the case of all unbounded linearly ordered sets.
ISSN:1860-5974