Hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets

Abstract

Dealing with vague or imprecise information has been always a challenging problem. Different tools have been proposed to manage that uncertainty. A new model based on hesitant fuzzy sets was presented to manage situations where experts hesitate among several values to assess alternatives, variables, etc. Hesitant fuzzy sets models quantitative settings, however, it could occur similar situations but in qualitative settings, where experts think of several possible linguistic values or richer expressions than a single linguistic term to assess alternatives, variables, etc. In this contribution the aim is to introduce the concept of Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Term Sets (HFLTS) that will provide a linguistic elicitation based on the fuzzy linguistic approach and the use of context-free grammars. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.