We present a family of algebraic structures, called rectangular bilattices, which serve as a natural accommodation and powerful generalization to both intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) and interval-valued fuzzy sets (IVFSs). These structures are useful on one hand to clarify the exact nature of the relationship between the above two common extensions of fuzzy sets, and on the other hand provide an intuitively attractive framework for the representation of uncertain and potentially conflicting

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... ormation. We also provide these structures with adequately defined graded versions of the basic logical connectives, and study their properties and relationships. Application potential and intuitive appeal of the proposed framework are illustrated in the context of preference modeling.