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Abstract

In this paper we focus on the application of description logics to natural
language processing. In cooperation with the {\sc pracma} project we have been
developing a suitably extended knowledge representation system, called {\sc
motel}. In our approach to agent modelling and natural language processing we
use an extension of the well-known description language $\cal ALC$. Our system
{\sc motel}\ serves on one hand as a knowledge base for the natural language
front-end, and on the other hand, it provides powerful {\em logical\/}
representation and reasoning components. As our approach is logic based we hope
that this enhances the overall capabilities of the natural language processing
(NLP) system. We present a brief overview of {\sc motel} and the different
extensions we are working on, i.e.\ modal extension of description logics, a
cardinality-based approach to quantitative information, reason maintenance,
probablistic, non-monotonic, and abductive reasoning.