Abstract

We introduce description logic (DL) rules as a new rule-based formalism for knowledge representation in DLs. As a fragment of the Semantic Web Rule Language SWRL, DL rules allow for a tight integration with DL knowledge bases. In contrast to SWRL, however, the combination of DL rules with expressive description logics remains decidable, and we show that the DLSROIQ – the basis for the ongoing standardisation of OWL 2 – can completely internalise DL rules. On the other hand, DL rules capture many expressive features ofSROIQ that are not available in simpler DLs yet. While reasoning inSROIQ is highly intractable, it turns out that DL rules can be introduced to various lightweight DLs without increasing their worst-case complexity. In particular, DL rules enable us to significantly extend the tractable DLsEL ++ and DLP.

Citations