Semantic parameterization

Semantic parameterization is a conceptual modeling process developed by Travis Breaux for expressing natural language descriptions of a domain in first-order predicate logic. [T.D. Breaux, A.I. Anton, J. Doyle, "Semantic parameterization: a process for modeling domain descriptions", (In Press) "ACM Transactions on Software Engineering Methodology", 2009.] The process yields a formalization of natural language sentences in Description Logic to answer the "who," "what" and "where" questions in the Inquiry-Cycle Model (ICM) developed by Colin Potts and his colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology. [C. Potts, K. Takahashi, and A.I. Anton, "Inquiry-based requirements analysis", "IEEE Software" 11(2): 21–32, 1994.] The parameterization process complements the Knowledge Acquisition and autOmated Specification (KAOS) method [A. Dardenne, A. van Lamsweerde and S. Fickas, "Goal-Directed Requirements Acquisition", "Science of Computer Programming" v. 20, North Holland, 1993, pp. 3-50.] , which formalizes answers to the "when", "why" and "how" ICM questions in Temporal Logic, to complete the ICM formalization. The artifacts used in the parameterization process include a dictionary that aligns the domain lexicon with unique concepts, distinguishing between synonyms and polysemes, and several natural language patterns that aid in mapping common domain descriptions to formal specifications.

Relationship to other theories

Semantic Parameterization defines a meta-model consisting of eight roles that are domain-independent and reusable. Seven of these roles correspond to Jeffrey Gruber's thematic relations [J. Gruber, "Lexical Structures in Syntax and Semantics", North Holland, New York, 1976.] and case roles in Charles Fillmore's case grammar [C. Fillmore, "The Case for Case", "Universals in Linguistic Theory", Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, New York, 1968.] :

References