Sample usage for inference¶

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)

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)

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)

>>> 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') 
[Found prover9: /usr/local/bin/prover9]

If the executables cannot be found, Prover9 will issue a warning message:

>>> p.prove() 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
LookupError:
===========================================================================
  NLTK was unable to find the prover9 executable!  Use config_prover9() or
  set the PROVER9HOME environment variable.

    >> config_prover9('/path/to/prover9')

  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 Expressions 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 ===========================

============================== end of input ==========================

============================== PROOF =================================

% -------- 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.

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)].

============================== 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

% Interpretation of size 2

 john : 0

 mary : 1

 see :
       | 0 1
    ---+----
     0 | 0 0
     1 | 1 0