CLASP
The Centre for Linguistic Theory and Studies in Probability

Rough Sets and Degree Modifiers

Rough sets were introduced by Pawlak in 1982, as a generalisation of classical set theory. A rough set is characterised by its upper and lower approximation, respectively, the objects that might belong to the set, and the objects that surely belong to the set. Although this approach has some similarities with fuzzy set theory, the perceived fuzziness of rough sets does not come from an underlying fuzzy logic, making rough sets a little less fuzzy than fuzzy sets.

In this talk, I will entertain the possibility that rough sets can be used to model degree modifiers. After an introduction to rough set theory, I will briefly discuss its relation to fuzzy set theory, and point out some possible advantages of rough sets. Finally, I will reintroduce some fuzziness by generalising to probabilistic rough sets.