Reducing the Size of Fuzzy Concept Lattices by Hedges

We study concept lattices with hedges. The principal aim is to control, in a parametrical way, the size of a concept lattice. The paper presents theoretical insight, comments, and examples. We show that a concept lattice with hedges is indeed a complete lattice which is isomorphic to an ordinary concept lattice. We describe the isomorphism and its inverse. These mappings serve as translation procedures. As a consequence, we obtain a theorem characterizing the structure of concept lattices with hedges which generalizes the so-called main theorem of concept lattices. Furthermore, the isomorphism and its inverse enable us to compute a concept lattice with hedges using algorithms for ordinary concept lattices. Further insight is provided in case one uses hedges only for attributes. We demonstrate by experiments that the size reduction using hedges as a parameter is smooth