| .. Copyright (C) 2001-2023 NLTK Project | |
| .. For license information, see LICENSE.TXT | |
| ==================================== | |
| Logical Inference and Model Building | |
| ==================================== | |
| >>> from nltk.test.setup_fixt import check_binary | |
| >>> check_binary('mace4') | |
| >>> from nltk import * | |
| >>> from nltk.sem.drt import DrtParser | |
| >>> from nltk.sem import logic | |
| >>> logic._counter._value = 0 | |
| ------------ | |
| Introduction | |
| ------------ | |
| Within the area of automated reasoning, first order theorem proving | |
| and model building (or model generation) have both received much | |
| attention, and have given rise to highly sophisticated techniques. We | |
| focus therefore on providing an NLTK interface to third party tools | |
| for these tasks. In particular, the module ``nltk.inference`` can be | |
| used to access both theorem provers and model builders. | |
| --------------------------------- | |
| NLTK Interface to Theorem Provers | |
| --------------------------------- | |
| The main class used to interface with a theorem prover is the ``Prover`` | |
| class, found in ``nltk.api``. The ``prove()`` method takes three optional | |
| arguments: a goal, a list of assumptions, and a ``verbose`` boolean to | |
| indicate whether the proof should be printed to the console. The proof goal | |
| and any assumptions need to be instances of the ``Expression`` class | |
| specified by ``nltk.sem.logic``. There are currently three theorem provers | |
| included with NLTK: ``Prover9``, ``TableauProver``, and | |
| ``ResolutionProver``. The first is an off-the-shelf prover, while the other | |
| two are written in Python and included in the ``nltk.inference`` package. | |
| >>> from nltk.sem import Expression | |
| >>> read_expr = Expression.fromstring | |
| >>> p1 = read_expr('man(socrates)') | |
| >>> p2 = read_expr('all x.(man(x) -> mortal(x))') | |
| >>> c = read_expr('mortal(socrates)') | |
| >>> Prover9().prove(c, [p1,p2]) | |
| True | |
| >>> TableauProver().prove(c, [p1,p2]) | |
| True | |
| >>> ResolutionProver().prove(c, [p1,p2], verbose=True) | |
| [1] {-mortal(socrates)} A | |
| [2] {man(socrates)} A | |
| [3] {-man(z2), mortal(z2)} A | |
| [4] {-man(socrates)} (1, 3) | |
| [5] {mortal(socrates)} (2, 3) | |
| [6] {} (1, 5) | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| True | |
| --------------------- | |
| The ``ProverCommand`` | |
| --------------------- | |
| A ``ProverCommand`` is a stateful holder for a theorem | |
| prover. The command stores a theorem prover instance (of type ``Prover``), | |
| a goal, a list of assumptions, the result of the proof, and a string version | |
| of the entire proof. Corresponding to the three included ``Prover`` | |
| implementations, there are three ``ProverCommand`` implementations: | |
| ``Prover9Command``, ``TableauProverCommand``, and | |
| ``ResolutionProverCommand``. | |
| The ``ProverCommand``'s constructor takes its goal and assumptions. The | |
| ``prove()`` command executes the ``Prover`` and ``proof()`` | |
| returns a String form of the proof | |
| If the ``prove()`` method has not been called, | |
| then the prover command will be unable to display a proof. | |
| >>> prover = ResolutionProverCommand(c, [p1,p2]) | |
| >>> print(prover.proof()) | |
| Traceback (most recent call last): | |
| File "...", line 1212, in __run | |
| compileflags, 1) in test.globs | |
| File "<doctest nltk/test/inference.doctest[10]>", line 1, in <module> | |
| File "...", line ..., in proof | |
| raise LookupError("You have to call prove() first to get a proof!") | |
| LookupError: You have to call prove() first to get a proof! | |
| >>> prover.prove() | |
| True | |
| >>> print(prover.proof()) | |
| [1] {-mortal(socrates)} A | |
| [2] {man(socrates)} A | |
| [3] {-man(z4), mortal(z4)} A | |
| [4] {-man(socrates)} (1, 3) | |
| [5] {mortal(socrates)} (2, 3) | |
| [6] {} (1, 5) | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| The prover command stores the result of proving so that if ``prove()`` is | |
| called again, then the command can return the result without executing the | |
| prover again. This allows the user to access the result of the proof without | |
| wasting time re-computing what it already knows. | |
| >>> prover.prove() | |
| True | |
| >>> prover.prove() | |
| True | |
| The assumptions and goal may be accessed using the ``assumptions()`` and | |
| ``goal()`` methods, respectively. | |
| >>> prover.assumptions() | |
| [<ApplicationExpression man(socrates)>, <AllExpression all x.(man(x) -> mortal(x))>] | |
| >>> prover.goal() | |
| <ApplicationExpression mortal(socrates)> | |
| The assumptions list may be modified using the ``add_assumptions()`` and | |
| ``retract_assumptions()`` methods. Both methods take a list of ``Expression`` | |
| objects. Since adding or removing assumptions may change the result of the | |
| proof, the stored result is cleared when either of these methods are called. | |
| That means that ``proof()`` will be unavailable until ``prove()`` is called and | |
| a call to ``prove()`` will execute the theorem prover. | |
| >>> prover.retract_assumptions([read_expr('man(socrates)')]) | |
| >>> print(prover.proof()) | |
| Traceback (most recent call last): | |
| File "...", line 1212, in __run | |
| compileflags, 1) in test.globs | |
| File "<doctest nltk/test/inference.doctest[10]>", line 1, in <module> | |
| File "...", line ..., in proof | |
| raise LookupError("You have to call prove() first to get a proof!") | |
| LookupError: You have to call prove() first to get a proof! | |
| >>> prover.prove() | |
| False | |
| >>> print(prover.proof()) | |
| [1] {-mortal(socrates)} A | |
| [2] {-man(z6), mortal(z6)} A | |
| [3] {-man(socrates)} (1, 2) | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| >>> prover.add_assumptions([read_expr('man(socrates)')]) | |
| >>> prover.prove() | |
| True | |
| ------- | |
| Prover9 | |
| ------- | |
| Prover9 Installation | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| You can download Prover9 from https://www.cs.unm.edu/~mccune/prover9/. | |
| Extract the source code into a suitable directory and follow the | |
| instructions in the Prover9 ``README.make`` file to compile the executables. | |
| Install these into an appropriate location; the | |
| ``prover9_search`` variable is currently configured to look in the | |
| following locations: | |
| >>> p = Prover9() | |
| >>> p.binary_locations() | |
| ['/usr/local/bin/prover9', | |
| '/usr/local/bin/prover9/bin', | |
| '/usr/local/bin', | |
| '/usr/bin', | |
| '/usr/local/prover9', | |
| '/usr/local/share/prover9'] | |
| Alternatively, the environment variable ``PROVER9HOME`` may be configured with | |
| the binary's location. | |
| The path to the correct directory can be set manually in the following | |
| manner: | |
| >>> config_prover9(path='/usr/local/bin') # doctest: +SKIP | |
| [Found prover9: /usr/local/bin/prover9] | |
| If the executables cannot be found, ``Prover9`` will issue a warning message: | |
| >>> p.prove() # doctest: +SKIP | |
| Traceback (most recent call last): | |
| ... | |
| LookupError: | |
| =========================================================================== | |
| NLTK was unable to find the prover9 executable! Use config_prover9() or | |
| set the PROVER9HOME environment variable. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| >> config_prover9('/path/to/prover9') | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| For more information, on prover9, see: | |
| <https://www.cs.unm.edu/~mccune/prover9/> | |
| =========================================================================== | |
| Using Prover9 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| The general case in theorem proving is to determine whether ``S |- g`` | |
| holds, where ``S`` is a possibly empty set of assumptions, and ``g`` | |
| is a proof goal. | |
| As mentioned earlier, NLTK input to ``Prover9`` must be | |
| ``Expression``\ s of ``nltk.sem.logic``. A ``Prover9`` instance is | |
| initialized with a proof goal and, possibly, some assumptions. The | |
| ``prove()`` method attempts to find a proof of the goal, given the | |
| list of assumptions (in this case, none). | |
| >>> goal = read_expr('(man(x) <-> --man(x))') | |
| >>> prover = Prover9Command(goal) | |
| >>> prover.prove() | |
| True | |
| Given a ``ProverCommand`` instance ``prover``, the method | |
| ``prover.proof()`` will return a String of the extensive proof information | |
| provided by Prover9, shown in abbreviated form here:: | |
| ============================== Prover9 =============================== | |
| Prover9 (32) version ... | |
| Process ... was started by ... on ... | |
| ... | |
| The command was ".../prover9 -f ...". | |
| ============================== end of head =========================== | |
| ============================== INPUT ================================= | |
| % Reading from file /var/... | |
| formulas(goals). | |
| (all x (man(x) -> man(x))). | |
| end_of_list. | |
| ... | |
| ============================== end of search ========================= | |
| THEOREM PROVED | |
| Exiting with 1 proof. | |
| Process 6317 exit (max_proofs) Mon Jan 21 15:23:28 2008 | |
| As mentioned earlier, we may want to list some assumptions for | |
| the proof, as shown here. | |
| >>> g = read_expr('mortal(socrates)') | |
| >>> a1 = read_expr('all x.(man(x) -> mortal(x))') | |
| >>> prover = Prover9Command(g, assumptions=[a1]) | |
| >>> prover.print_assumptions() | |
| all x.(man(x) -> mortal(x)) | |
| However, the assumptions are not sufficient to derive the goal: | |
| >>> print(prover.prove()) | |
| False | |
| So let's add another assumption: | |
| >>> a2 = read_expr('man(socrates)') | |
| >>> prover.add_assumptions([a2]) | |
| >>> prover.print_assumptions() | |
| all x.(man(x) -> mortal(x)) | |
| man(socrates) | |
| >>> print(prover.prove()) | |
| True | |
| We can also show the assumptions in ``Prover9`` format. | |
| >>> prover.print_assumptions(output_format='Prover9') | |
| all x (man(x) -> mortal(x)) | |
| man(socrates) | |
| >>> prover.print_assumptions(output_format='Spass') | |
| Traceback (most recent call last): | |
| . . . | |
| NameError: Unrecognized value for 'output_format': Spass | |
| Assumptions can be retracted from the list of assumptions. | |
| >>> prover.retract_assumptions([a1]) | |
| >>> prover.print_assumptions() | |
| man(socrates) | |
| >>> prover.retract_assumptions([a1]) | |
| Statements can be loaded from a file and parsed. We can then add these | |
| statements as new assumptions. | |
| >>> g = read_expr('all x.(boxer(x) -> -boxerdog(x))') | |
| >>> prover = Prover9Command(g) | |
| >>> prover.prove() | |
| False | |
| >>> import nltk.data | |
| >>> new = nltk.data.load('grammars/sample_grammars/background0.fol') | |
| >>> for a in new: | |
| ... print(a) | |
| all x.(boxerdog(x) -> dog(x)) | |
| all x.(boxer(x) -> person(x)) | |
| all x.-(dog(x) & person(x)) | |
| exists x.boxer(x) | |
| exists x.boxerdog(x) | |
| >>> prover.add_assumptions(new) | |
| >>> print(prover.prove()) | |
| True | |
| >>> print(prover.proof()) | |
| ============================== prooftrans ============================ | |
| Prover9 (...) version ... | |
| Process ... was started by ... on ... | |
| ... | |
| The command was ".../prover9". | |
| ============================== end of head =========================== | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| ============================== end of input ========================== | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| ============================== PROOF ================================= | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| % -------- Comments from original proof -------- | |
| % Proof 1 at ... seconds. | |
| % Length of proof is 13. | |
| % Level of proof is 4. | |
| % Maximum clause weight is 0. | |
| % Given clauses 0. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| 1 (all x (boxerdog(x) -> dog(x))). [assumption]. | |
| 2 (all x (boxer(x) -> person(x))). [assumption]. | |
| 3 (all x -(dog(x) & person(x))). [assumption]. | |
| 6 (all x (boxer(x) -> -boxerdog(x))). [goal]. | |
| 8 -boxerdog(x) | dog(x). [clausify(1)]. | |
| 9 boxerdog(c3). [deny(6)]. | |
| 11 -boxer(x) | person(x). [clausify(2)]. | |
| 12 boxer(c3). [deny(6)]. | |
| 14 -dog(x) | -person(x). [clausify(3)]. | |
| 15 dog(c3). [resolve(9,a,8,a)]. | |
| 18 person(c3). [resolve(12,a,11,a)]. | |
| 19 -person(c3). [resolve(15,a,14,a)]. | |
| 20 $F. [resolve(19,a,18,a)]. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| ============================== end of proof ========================== | |
| ---------------------- | |
| The equiv() method | |
| ---------------------- | |
| One application of the theorem prover functionality is to check if | |
| two Expressions have the same meaning. | |
| The ``equiv()`` method calls a theorem prover to determine whether two | |
| Expressions are logically equivalent. | |
| >>> a = read_expr(r'exists x.(man(x) & walks(x))') | |
| >>> b = read_expr(r'exists x.(walks(x) & man(x))') | |
| >>> print(a.equiv(b)) | |
| True | |
| The same method can be used on Discourse Representation Structures (DRSs). | |
| In this case, each DRS is converted to a first order logic form, and then | |
| passed to the theorem prover. | |
| >>> dp = DrtParser() | |
| >>> a = dp.parse(r'([x],[man(x), walks(x)])') | |
| >>> b = dp.parse(r'([x],[walks(x), man(x)])') | |
| >>> print(a.equiv(b)) | |
| True | |
| -------------------------------- | |
| NLTK Interface to Model Builders | |
| -------------------------------- | |
| The top-level to model builders is parallel to that for | |
| theorem-provers. The ``ModelBuilder`` interface is located | |
| in ``nltk.inference.api``. It is currently only implemented by | |
| ``Mace``, which interfaces with the Mace4 model builder. | |
| Typically we use a model builder to show that some set of formulas has | |
| a model, and is therefore consistent. One way of doing this is by | |
| treating our candidate set of sentences as assumptions, and leaving | |
| the goal unspecified. | |
| Thus, the following interaction shows how both ``{a, c1}`` and ``{a, c2}`` | |
| are consistent sets, since Mace succeeds in a building a | |
| model for each of them, while ``{c1, c2}`` is inconsistent. | |
| >>> a3 = read_expr('exists x.(man(x) and walks(x))') | |
| >>> c1 = read_expr('mortal(socrates)') | |
| >>> c2 = read_expr('-mortal(socrates)') | |
| >>> mace = Mace() | |
| >>> print(mace.build_model(None, [a3, c1])) | |
| True | |
| >>> print(mace.build_model(None, [a3, c2])) | |
| True | |
| We can also use the model builder as an adjunct to theorem prover. | |
| Let's suppose we are trying to prove ``S |- g``, i.e. that ``g`` | |
| is logically entailed by assumptions ``S = {s1, s2, ..., sn}``. | |
| We can this same input to Mace4, and the model builder will try to | |
| find a counterexample, that is, to show that ``g`` does *not* follow | |
| from ``S``. So, given this input, Mace4 will try to find a model for | |
| the set ``S' = {s1, s2, ..., sn, (not g)}``. If ``g`` fails to follow | |
| from ``S``, then Mace4 may well return with a counterexample faster | |
| than Prover9 concludes that it cannot find the required proof. | |
| Conversely, if ``g`` *is* provable from ``S``, Mace4 may take a long | |
| time unsuccessfully trying to find a counter model, and will eventually give up. | |
| In the following example, we see that the model builder does succeed | |
| in building a model of the assumptions together with the negation of | |
| the goal. That is, it succeeds in finding a model | |
| where there is a woman that every man loves; Adam is a man; Eve is a | |
| woman; but Adam does not love Eve. | |
| >>> a4 = read_expr('exists y. (woman(y) & all x. (man(x) -> love(x,y)))') | |
| >>> a5 = read_expr('man(adam)') | |
| >>> a6 = read_expr('woman(eve)') | |
| >>> g = read_expr('love(adam,eve)') | |
| >>> print(mace.build_model(g, [a4, a5, a6])) | |
| True | |
| The Model Builder will fail to find a model if the assumptions do entail | |
| the goal. Mace will continue to look for models of ever-increasing sizes | |
| until the end_size number is reached. By default, end_size is 500, | |
| but it can be set manually for quicker response time. | |
| >>> a7 = read_expr('all x.(man(x) -> mortal(x))') | |
| >>> a8 = read_expr('man(socrates)') | |
| >>> g2 = read_expr('mortal(socrates)') | |
| >>> print(Mace(end_size=50).build_model(g2, [a7, a8])) | |
| False | |
| There is also a ``ModelBuilderCommand`` class that, like ``ProverCommand``, | |
| stores a ``ModelBuilder``, a goal, assumptions, a result, and a model. The | |
| only implementation in NLTK is ``MaceCommand``. | |
| ----- | |
| Mace4 | |
| ----- | |
| Mace4 Installation | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Mace4 is packaged with Prover9, and can be downloaded from the same | |
| source, namely https://www.cs.unm.edu/~mccune/prover9/. It is installed | |
| in the same manner as Prover9. | |
| Using Mace4 | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Check whether Mace4 can find a model. | |
| >>> a = read_expr('(see(mary,john) & -(mary = john))') | |
| >>> mb = MaceCommand(assumptions=[a]) | |
| >>> mb.build_model() | |
| True | |
| Show the model in 'tabular' format. | |
| >>> print(mb.model(format='tabular')) | |
| % number = 1 | |
| % seconds = 0 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| % Interpretation of size 2 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| john : 0 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| mary : 1 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| see : | |
| | 0 1 | |
| ---+---- | |
| 0 | 0 0 | |
| 1 | 1 0 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| Show the model in 'tabular' format. | |
| >>> print(mb.model(format='cooked')) | |
| % number = 1 | |
| % seconds = 0 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| % Interpretation of size 2 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| john = 0. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| mary = 1. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| - see(0,0). | |
| - see(0,1). | |
| see(1,0). | |
| - see(1,1). | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| The property ``valuation`` accesses the stored ``Valuation``. | |
| >>> print(mb.valuation) | |
| {'john': 'a', 'mary': 'b', 'see': {('b', 'a')}} | |
| We can return to our earlier example and inspect the model: | |
| >>> mb = MaceCommand(g, assumptions=[a4, a5, a6]) | |
| >>> m = mb.build_model() | |
| >>> print(mb.model(format='cooked')) | |
| % number = 1 | |
| % seconds = 0 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| % Interpretation of size 2 | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| adam = 0. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| eve = 0. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| c1 = 1. | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| man(0). | |
| - man(1). | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| woman(0). | |
| woman(1). | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| - love(0,0). | |
| love(0,1). | |
| - love(1,0). | |
| - love(1,1). | |
| <BLANKLINE> | |
| Here, we can see that ``adam`` and ``eve`` have been assigned the same | |
| individual, namely ``0`` as value; ``0`` is both a man and a woman; a second | |
| individual ``1`` is also a woman; and ``0`` loves ``1``. Thus, this is | |
| an interpretation in which there is a woman that every man loves but | |
| Adam doesn't love Eve. | |
| Mace can also be used with propositional logic. | |
| >>> p = read_expr('P') | |
| >>> q = read_expr('Q') | |
| >>> mb = MaceCommand(q, [p, p>-q]) | |
| >>> mb.build_model() | |
| True | |
| >>> mb.valuation['P'] | |
| True | |
| >>> mb.valuation['Q'] | |
| False | |