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From: "William J. Rapaport" <rapaport@cse.buffalo.edu>
Newsgroups: sunyab.cse.740
Subject: Re: (deduce ...)
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 11:52:29 -0500
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To: Dmitriy Dligach <ddligach@cse.buffalo.edu>
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Dmitriy Dligach wrote:
> Dr. Rapaport
> 
> Could you explain why we need the "build" command in
> 
> (describe (deduce agent John act believe
>                   object (build object Clyde ability fly)))
> 
> (see http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/sneps/Tutorial/node43.html).
> 
> Aren't we just asking a question (and not telling Cassie to create a new
> node)?

Yes, but you need *something* there:  It's illegal to write:

(deduce agent John act believe object (object Clyde ability fly))

because SNePSUL syntax requires a command to precede the list of 
relations and nodes.  In order to give SNePS the proposition that you 
want it to deduce, you need to build it.  In fact, "deduce" first builds 
the node and *then* tries to infer it.  If it succeeds, it *asserts* 
that node; if it fails, the node remains in memory (as something that it 
once wondered about).



-- 
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William J. Rapaport
Associate Professor of Computer Science/Adjunct Professor of Philosophy
Member, Center for Cognitive Science
Associate Director, SNePS Research Group (SNeRG)

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