Skip to main content

Unification in lambda-calculi with if-then-else

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Automated Deduction — CADE-15 (CADE 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1421))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

A new unification algorithm is introduced, which (unlike previous algorithms for unification in λ-calculus) shares the pleasant properties of first-order unification. Proofs of these properties are given, in particular uniqueness of the answer and the most-general-unifier property. This unification algorithm can be used to generalize first-order proofsearch algorithms to second-order logic, making possible for example a straighforward treatment of McCarthy's circumscription schema.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. A. Baker and M. Ginsberg. A theorem prover for prioritized circumscription. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 463–467, Morgan Kaufmann, Los Altos, Calif. (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  2. H. P. Barendregt. The Lambda Calculus: Its Syntax and Semantics. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  3. M. Beeson. Some applications of Gentzen's proof theory in automated deduction. In Schroeder-Heister (ed.), Extensions of Logic Programming, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 475, Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  4. M. Ginsberg. A circumscriptive theorem prover. Artificial Intelligence 39, No. 2 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  5. G. Huet. A unification algorithm for typed λ-calculus. Theoretical Computer Science 1 (1975) 27–52.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. V. Lifschitz. Computing circumscription. Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 121–127, Morgan Kaufmann, Los Altos, Calif. (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  7. J. McCarthy. Applications of circumscription to formalizing common-sense knowledge. Artificial Intelligence 28 (1986) 89–116.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. D. Miller. Unification under a mixed prefix. Journal of Symbolic Computation 14 (1992) 321–358.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. D. Miller and G. Nadathur. An Overview of λ-Prolog In Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Logic Programming, Seattle, August 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  10. D. Prawitz. Completeness and Hauptsatz for second order logic. Theoria 33, 246–258.

    Google Scholar 

  11. W. Snyder. Higher-order E-unification. In M. E. Stickel (ed.), CADE-10, Tenth International Conference on Automated Deduction 573–587 Springer-Verlag (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Automated Deduction in Nonclassical Logics. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1990)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Claude Kirchner Hélène Kirchner

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Beeson, M. (1998). Unification in lambda-calculi with if-then-else. In: Kirchner, C., Kirchner, H. (eds) Automated Deduction — CADE-15. CADE 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1421. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0054251

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0054251

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-64675-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69110-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics