Standard assumption
The standard assumption , or the default (English [dɪ'fɔlt] or [dɪ'fɔ: lt] ), denotes the assumption that a sentence , a relation or a property is valid in the standard case, i. This means that an assumption without explicit setting applies in individual cases until it is overridden by a more specific definition. The term has analogies with the notion of default (also: default) on the programming, but is used in a generalized sense in different areas.
Characterization and applications
The standard assumption allows for deviations, which distinguishes it from the general statement . As a result, the standard assumption is a suitable means of using default mechanisms to describe systems whose characteristics are not completely known from the outset, or which contain irregularities.
Standard assumptions are used in practice when simulating learning processes or for describing prototypes in everyday knowledge ( birds can fly, swans are white are standard assumptions). Linguistics uses formal systems such as default inheritance networks or default logics to create models of systems that sometimes contain irregular subsystems (e.g. defective paradigms in morphology ).
Origin of the name Default
The meaning of the word default is originally “failure” in English, e.g. B. the default of a debtor. In the above context, first, the phrase developed something by default ( by default true), that "because of the lack [otherwise information]." This results in the use of language, after which the default is the case where a preset attacks, and hence the fact that the word default designates the preset information itself.
literature
- R. Reiter: A Logic for Default Reasoning . In: Artificial Intelligence 13 , 1980
- Helmut Glück (Hsg): Metzler Lexicon Language. Stuttgart: Metzler 2005, ISBN 347602056-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ Basic meanings according to www.etymonline.com
- ↑ cf. en: Default (computer science)