Graphical Notation for Natural Language and Knowledge Representation

This article describes graphical language for the representation of textual user requirements. We need such a language in order to approach the automatic construction of graphical software engineering (SE) models (in particular UML diagrams) as a translation from one graphical language into another. In order to fulfill this goal, we have included universal notation in graphical language, which is equally valid for the presentation of linguistic knowledge and the problem domain knowledge. Using unified graphical presentation of natural language and knowledge, we are literally able to draw text as a picture. This process is based on a deep analysis and a clear representation of the text, using a limited set of meaningful graphical symbols. As a result, we achive a methodology for mining a huge volume of knowledge about relations and structures between entities: words in the text and objects/concepts in the problem domain. The extracted relations generalize knowledge and can be formulated in a presentation appropriate for different purposes. In our case many target SE models.