Denotational and operational semantics for prolog

AbstractThe semantics of PROLOG programs is usually given in terms of the model theory of first-order logic. However, this does not adequately characterizethe computational behavior of PROLOG programs. PROLOG implementations typically use a sequential evaluation strategy based on the textual order of clauses and literals in a program, as well as nonlogical features like cut. In this work we develop a denotational semantics that captures thecomputational behavior of PROLOG. We present a semantics for “cut-free” PROLOG, which is then extended to PROLOG with cut. For each case we develop a congruence proof that relates the semantics to a standard operational interpreter. As an application of our denotational semantics, we show the correctness of some standard “folk” theorems regarding transformations on PROLOG programs