Constrained Assumption-Based Argumentation Frameworks

Abstract

Assumption-based Argumentation (ABA) is a well-established form of structured argumentation. ABA frameworks with an underlying atomic language are widely studied, but their applicability is limited by a representational restriction to ground (variable-free) arguments and attacks built from propositional atoms. In this paper, we lift this restriction and propose a novel notion of constrained ABA (CABA), whose components, as well as arguments built from them, may include constrained variables, ranging over possibly infinite domains. We define non-ground semantics for CABA, in terms of various notions of non-ground attacks. We show that the new semantics conservatively generalise standard ABA semantics.

Extended version with proofs and additional results of the full paper accepted at the 25th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.65109/KRAP9309