DECIDABLE MATCHING FOR CONVERGENT SYSTEMS - PRELIMINARY VERSION

Abstract

We provide a simple system, based on transformation rules, which is complete for certain classes of semantic matching problem, where the equational theory with respect to which the semantic matching is performed has a convergent rewrite system. We also use this transformation SySteM to describe decision procedures for semantic matching problems. We give counterexamples to show that semantic matching becomes undecidable (as it generally is) when the conditions we give are weakened. Our main result pertains to convergent systems with variable preserving rules, with some particular patterns of defined functions on the right hand sides.