MPI-I-94-235

We propose a method for combining the clause linking theorem proving method with theorem proving methods based on orderings. This may be useful for incorporating term-rewriting based approaches into clause linking. In this way, some of the propositional inefficiencies of ordering-based approaches may be overcome, while at the same time incorporating the advantages of ordering methods into clause linking. The combination also provides a natural way to combine resolution on non-ground clauses, with the clause linking method, which is essentially a ground method. We describe the method, prove completeness, and show that the enumeration part of clause linking with semantics can be reduced to polynomial time in certain cases. We analyze the complexity of the proposed method, and also give some plausibility arguments concerning its expected performance.