A Unifying Translation of Natural Language Patterns to Object and Process Modeling

The proposed translation of natural language (NL) patterns to object and process modeling is seen as an alternative to the symbolic notations, textual languages or classical semantic networks, the main representation tools today. Its necessity is motivated by the universality, unifying abilities, natural extensibility, logic and reusability of NL. The translation relies on a formalized, stylized and graphical representation of NL, bridging NL to an integrated view on the object and process modeling. Only the morphological and syntactic knowledge in NL is subject to translation, but the proposed solution anticipates the semantic and logical interpretation of a model. A brief presentation and exemplification of NL patterns in consideration precede the translation. INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION The complexity of today’s information systems (IS) entails the need to combine and integrate object, process, data flow, workflow models and, at the same time, to satisfy modeling requirements like: universality, integration, extensibility, equidistance versus the implementation models, structuring (modularity, connectivity, encapsulation), logical and semantic consistency, reusability, friendly interface. Symbolic notation has become the main representation tool for most of these models This chapter appears in the book, Information Modeling in the New Millennium by Matti Rossi and Keng Siau. Copyright © 2001, Idea Group Publishing. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey PA 17033-1117, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com ITB8080 IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING