A Kripke-Kleene Semantics for Logic Programs

The use of conventional classical logic is misleading for characterizing the behavior of logic programs because a logic program, when queried, will do one of three things: succeed with the query, fail with it, or not respond because it has fallen into infinite backtracking. In [7] Kleene proposed a three-valued logic for use in recursive function theory. The so-called third truth value was really undefined: truth value not determined. This logic is a useful tool in logic-program specification, and in particular, for describing models. (See [11].) Tarski showed that formal languages, like arithmetic, cannot contain their own truth predicate because one could then construct a paradoxical sentence that effectively asserts its own falsehood. Natural languages do allow the use of "is true", so by Tarski's argument a semantics for natural language must leave truth-value gaps: some sentences must fail to have a truth value. In [8] Kripke showed how a model having truth-value gaps, using Kleene's three-valued logic, could be specified. The mechanism he used is a famiUar one in program semantics: consider the least fixed point of a certain monotone operator. But that operator must be defined on a space involving three-valued logic, and for Kripke's application it will not be continuous. We apply techniques similar to Kripke's to logic programs. We associate with each program a monotone operator on a space of three-valued logic interpretations, or better partial interpretations. This space is not a complete lattice, and the operators are not, in general, continuous. But least and other fixed points do exist. These fixed points are shown to provide suitable three-valued program models. They relate closely to the least and greatest fixed points of the operators used in [1]. Because of the extra machinery involved, our treatment allows for a natural consideration of negation, and indeed, of the other prepositional connectives as well. And because of the elaborate structure of fixed points available, we are able to