• •

Logic Programming

• About the course

– Taught in English
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• Teaching material
– Learn Prolog Now!
– SWI Prolog interpreter

Learn Prolog Now!

© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• • 1
• •

SWI Prolog

• Freely available Prolog interpreter

• Works with
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

– Linux,
– Windows, or
– Mac OS
• There are many more Prolog
interpreters
• Not all are ISO compliant

Lecture 1

• Theory
– Introduction to Prolog
– Facts, Rules and Queries
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

– Prolog Syntax

• Exercises
– Exercises of LPN chapter 1
– Practical work

• • 2
• •

Aim of this lecture

• Give some simple examples of Prolog
programs
• Discuss the three basic constructs in Prolog:
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

– Facts
– Rules
– Queries
• Introduce other concepts, such as
– the role of logic
– unification with the help of variables
• Begin the systematic study of Prolog by
defining terms, atoms, and variables

Prolog

• "Programming with Logic"

• Declarative
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• Very different from other (procedural)

programming languages
• Good for knowledge-rich tasks

• • 3
• •

History of Prolog
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

first Prolog interpreter by

Colmerauer and Roussel

1972 1977 1980 1980s/1990s 2005

History of Prolog
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

implementation of DEC10
compiler by Warren

1972 1977 1980 1980s/1990s 2005

• • 4
• •

History of Prolog
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

Definite Clause Grammars

implementation by Pereira
and Warren

1972 1977 1980 1980s/1990s 2005

History of Prolog
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

Prolog grows in popularity

especially in Europe and Japan

1972 1977 1980 1980s/1990s 2005

• • 5
• •

History of Prolog

Prolog used to program

natural language
interface in
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

International Space
Station by NASA

1972 1977 1980 1980s/1990s 2005

Basic idea of Prolog

• Describe the situation of interest

• Ask a question
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• Prolog logically deduces new facts

about the situation we described
• Prolog gives us its deductions back as
answers

• • 6
• •

Consequences

• Think declaratively, not procedurally

– Challenging
– Requires a different mindset
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• High-level language
– Not as efficient as, say, C
– Good for rapid prototyping
– Useful in many AI applications

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

• • 7
• •

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?-

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- woman(mia).

• • 8
• •

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- woman(mia).
yes
?-

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- woman(mia).
yes
?- playsAirGuitar(jody).

• • 9
• •

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- woman(mia).
yes
?- playsAirGuitar(jody).
yes
?-

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- woman(mia).
yes
?- playsAirGuitar(jody).
yes
?- playsAirGuitar(mia).
no

• • 10
• •

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- tattoed(jody).

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- tattoed(jody).
no
?-

• • 11
• •

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- tattoed(jody).
ERROR: predicate tattoed/1 not defined.
?-

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- party.

• • 12
• •

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- party.
yes
?-

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- rockConcert.

• • 13
• •

Knowledge Base 1
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(jody).
party.

?- rockConcert.
no
?-

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

• • 14
• •

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda). fact
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda). fact
listens2music(mia). fact
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

• • 15
• •

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda). fact
listens2music(mia). fact
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda). rule
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda). fact
listens2music(mia). fact
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda). rule
rule
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

• • 16
• •

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda). fact
listens2music(mia). fact
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda). rule
rule
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda). rule

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

head body

• • 17
• •

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

?-

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

?- playsAirGuitar(mia).
yes
?-

• • 18
• •

Knowledge Base 2
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

?- playsAirGuitar(mia).
yes
?- playsAirGuitar(yolanda).
yes

Clauses
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

There are five clauses in this knowledge base:

two facts, and three rules.

The end of a clause is marked with a full stop.

• • 19
• •

Predicates
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

There are three predicates

in this knowledge base:
happy, listens2music, and playsAirGuitar

Knowledge Base 3
happy(vincent).
listens2music(butch).
playsAirGuitar(vincent):- listens2music(vincent), happy(vincent).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(butch):- happy(butch).
playsAirGuitar(butch):- listens2music(butch).

• • 20
• •

Expressing Conjunction
happy(vincent).
listens2music(butch).
playsAirGuitar(vincent):- listens2music(vincent), happy(vincent).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(butch):- happy(butch).
playsAirGuitar(butch):- listens2music(butch).

The comma “," expresses conjunction in Prolog

Knowledge Base 3
happy(vincent).
listens2music(butch).
playsAirGuitar(vincent):- listens2music(vincent), happy(vincent).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(butch):- happy(butch).
playsAirGuitar(butch):- listens2music(butch).

?- playsAirGuitar(vincent).
no
?-

• • 21
• •

Knowledge Base 3
happy(vincent).
listens2music(butch).
playsAirGuitar(vincent):- listens2music(vincent), happy(vincent).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(butch):- happy(butch).
playsAirGuitar(butch):- listens2music(butch).

?- playsAirGuitar(butch).
yes
?-

Expressing Disjunction

happy(vincent).
listens2music(butch).
playsAirGuitar(vincent):- listens2music(vincent), happy(vincent).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(butch):- happy(butch).
playsAirGuitar(butch):- listens2music(butch).

happy(vincent).
listens2music(butch).
playsAirGuitar(vincent):- listens2music(vincent), happy(vincent).
playsAirGuitar(butch):- happy(butch); listens2music(butch).

• • 22
• •

Prolog and Logic

• Clearly Prolog has something to do with

logic
• Operators
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

– Implication :-
– Conjunction ,
– Disjunction ;
• Use of modus ponens
• Negation

Knowledge Base 4
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

• • 23
• •

Prolog Variables
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- woman(X).

Variable Instantiation
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- woman(X).
X=mia

• • 24
• •

Asking Alternatives
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- woman(X).
X=mia;

Asking Alternatives
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- woman(X).
X=mia;
X=jody

• • 25
• •

Asking Alternatives
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- woman(X).
X=mia;
X=jody;
X=yolanda

Asking Alternatives
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- woman(X).
X=mia;
X=jody;
X=yolanda;
no

• • 26
• •

Knowledge Base 4
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- loves(marsellus,X), woman(X).

Knowledge Base 4
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- loves(marsellus,X), woman(X).
X=mia
yes
?-

• • 27
• •

Knowledge Base 4
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- loves(pumpkin,X), woman(X).

Knowledge Base 4
woman(mia).
woman(jody).
woman(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(vincent, mia).
loves(marsellus, mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

?- loves(pumpkin,X), woman(X).
no
?-

• • 28
• •

Knowledge Base 5
loves(vincent,mia).
loves(marsellus,mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

jealous(X,Y):- loves(X,Z), loves(Y,Z).

Knowledge Base 5
loves(vincent,mia).
loves(marsellus,mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

jealous(X,Y):- loves(X,Z), loves(Y,Z).

?- jealous(marsellus,W).

• • 29
• •

Knowledge Base 5
loves(vincent,mia).
loves(marsellus,mia).
loves(pumpkin, honey_bunny).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

loves(honey_bunny, pumpkin).

jealous(X,Y):- loves(X,Z), loves(Y,Z).

?- jealous(marsellus,W).
W=vincent
?-

Prolog Syntax

• What exactly are facts, rules and

queries built out of?
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

Terms
Terms

Simple
SimpleTerms
Terms Complex
ComplexTerms
Terms

Constants
Constants Variables
Variables

Atoms
Atoms Numbers
Numbers

• • 30
• •

Atoms
• A sequence of characters of upper-case letters,
lower-case letters, digits, or underscore, starting
with a lowercase letter
• Examples: butch, big_kahuna_burger, playGuitar
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• An arbitrary sequence of characters enclosed in

single quotes
• Examples: 'Vincent', 'Five dollar shake', '@$%'

• A sequence of special characters

• Examples: : , ; . :-

Numbers

• Integers: 12, -34, 22342

• Floats: 34573.3234
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• • 31
• •

Variables

• A sequence of characters of upper-

case letters, lower-case letters, digits,
or underscore, starting with either an
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

uppercase letter or an underscore

• Examples:

X, Y, Variable, Vincent, _tag

Complex Terms

• Atoms, numbers and variables are

building blocks for complex terms
• Complex terms are built out of a functor
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

directly followed by a sequence of

arguments
• Arguments are put in round brackets,
separated by commas
• The functor must be an atom

• • 32
• •

Examples of complex terms

• Examples we have seen before:

– playsAirGuitar(jody)
– loves(vincent, mia)
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

– jealous(marsellus, W)

• Complex terms inside complex terms:

– hide(X,father(father(father(butch))))

Arity

• The number of arguments a complex

term has is called its arity
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• Examples:

woman(mia) is a term with arity 1

loves(vincent,mia) has arity 2
father(father(butch)) arity 1

• • 33
• •

Arity is important

• In Prolog you can define two predicates

with the same functor but with different
arity
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• Prolog would treat this as two different

predicates
• In Prolog documentation arity of a
predicate is usually indicated with the
suffix "/" followed by a number to
indicate the arity

Example of Arity
happy(yolanda).
listens2music(mia).
listens2music(yolanda):- happy(yolanda).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

playsAirGuitar(mia):- listens2music(mia).
playsAirGuitar(yolanda):- listens2music(yolanda).

• This knowledge base defines

– happy/1
– listens2music/1
– playsAirGuitar/1

• • 34
• •

Exercises
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

Summary of this lecture

• Simple examples of Prolog programs

• Introduced three basic constructs in Prolog:
– Facts
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

– Rules
– Queries
• Discussed other concepts, such as
– the role of logic
– unification with the help of variables
• Definition of Prolog constructs:
terms, atoms, and variables

• • 35
• •

Next lecture

• Discuss unification in Prolog

• Prolog's search strategy
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

• • 36