🚀 go-pugleaf

           Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
              (GB = Galbraith Building, 35 St. George Street)

       -------------------------------------------------------------

                                    AI
              GB221, at 11:00 a.m., Thursday 22 October 1992

                            Vladimir Lifschitz
                       University of Texas at Austin

                     "Languages for Describing Action"

Methods for representing properties of actions in logical formalisms are
usually explained on specific examples, such as ``Yale Shooting'' and its
modifications.  Competing methods are evaluated and compared in terms of
their ability to handle such examples.  We propose to supplement the use of
examples by another approach based on specialized declarative languages for
describing the effects of actions.  Each method is to be characterized as a
translation from an action language into a logical formalism.  Then the
claim that the method is adequate can be precisely stated as a soundness or
completeness property of the corresponding translation.  Different methods
(perhaps using different ontologies of action or different nonmonotonic
formalisms) can be compared by studying the expressiveness of the action
languages to which they are applicable.