G2S: A General-to-Specific Learning Framework for Temporal Knowledge Graph Forecasting with Large Language Models

Long Bai, Zixuan Li, Xiaolong Jin, Jiafeng Guo, Xueqi Cheng, Tat-Seng Chua


Abstract
Forecasting over Temporal Knowledge Graphs (TKGs) which predicts future facts based on historical ones has received much attention. Recent studies have introduced Large Language Models (LLMs) for this task to enhance the models’ generalization abilities. However, these models perform forecasting via simultaneously learning two kinds of entangled knowledge in the TKG: (1) general patterns, i.e., invariant temporal structures shared across different scenarios; and (2) scenario information, i.e., factual knowledge engaged in specific scenario, such as entities and relations. As a result, the learning processes of these two kinds of knowledge may interfere with each other, which potentially impact the generalization abilities of the models. To enhance the generalization ability of LLMs on this task, in this paper, we propose a General-to-Specific learning framework (G2S) that disentangles the learning processes of the above two kinds of knowledge. In the general learning stage, we mask the scenario information in different TKGs and convert it into anonymous temporal structures. After training on these structures, the model is able to capture the general patterns across different TKGs. In the specific learning stage, we inject the scenario information into the structures via either in-context learning or fine-tuning modes. Experimental results show that G2S effectively improves the generalization abilities of LLMs.
Anthology ID:
2025.findings-acl.1077
Volume:
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025
Month:
July
Year:
2025
Address:
Vienna, Austria
Editors:
Wanxiang Che, Joyce Nabende, Ekaterina Shutova, Mohammad Taher Pilehvar
Venue:
Findings
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Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
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Pages:
20927–20938
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URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/landing_page/2025.findings-acl.1077/
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Cite (ACL):
Long Bai, Zixuan Li, Xiaolong Jin, Jiafeng Guo, Xueqi Cheng, and Tat-Seng Chua. 2025. G2S: A General-to-Specific Learning Framework for Temporal Knowledge Graph Forecasting with Large Language Models. In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025, pages 20927–20938, Vienna, Austria. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
G2S: A General-to-Specific Learning Framework for Temporal Knowledge Graph Forecasting with Large Language Models (Bai et al., Findings 2025)
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https://preview.aclanthology.org/landing_page/2025.findings-acl.1077.pdf