EJC

The goal of this paper is to build a bridge from a certain intuitive conception of natural language communication, called the SLIM theory of language, to a technical approach, called database semantics (cf. Hausser 1999/2001). The intuitive approach proceeds from the interfaces of a cognitive agent's recognition and action, the levels of language and context, the nature of concepts, and

A faceted taxonomy is a set of taxonomies, each describing a given domain from a different aspect, or facet. The indexing of domain objects is done through conjunctive combinations of terms from the facets, called compound terms. A faceted taxonomy has several advantages over a single hierarchy of terms, including conceptual clarity, compactness and scalability. A drawback, however, is the cost of avoiding invalid combinations, i.e. compound terms that do not apply to any object in the domain. This need arises in both indexing and retrieval, and typically involves human effort for specifying the valid compound terms one by one. We here propose a compound term composition algebra which can be used to generate valid compound terms in a given faceted taxonomy in an efficient and flexible manner. It works on the basis of the original simple terms of the facets and a small set of positive and/or negative statements. In each algebraic operation, we adopt a closed-world assumption with res...

This paper describes a way to build a conceptual model for diversified purposes of modelling Enterprise Architectures (EA). It is commonly known that, due to the complexity, Enterprise Architectures need to be considered from several viewpoints. This provokes an integration problem: how to ensure that parallel EA models are consistent. We believe that the best way to solve this problem is to build a generic conceptual model (or an ontology) that is based on the purpose and needs of EA modelling rather than on the metamodels or modelling techniques of the prevailing (viewpoint-specific) domains of EA modelling. In other words, instead of aggregating existing sub-domains of EA we should try to find the core concepts through analyzing the EA domain as a whole. We emphasize the importance of the process through which the conceptual model is produced. Therefore, besides the conceptual skeleton and its utilization we provide an in-depth description of the modelling process we have develop...

A faceted taxonomy is a set of taxonomies, each describing a given domain from a different aspect, or facet. The indexing of domain objects is done through conjunctive combinations of terms from the facets, called compound terms. A faceted taxonomy has several advantages over a single hierarchy of terms, including conceptual clarity, compactness and scalability. A drawback, however, is the cost of avoiding invalid combinations, i.e. compound terms that do not apply to any object in the domain. This need arises in both indexing and retrieval, and typically involves human effort for specifying the valid compound terms one by one. We here propose a compound term composition algebra which can be used to generate valid compound terms in a given faceted taxonomy in an efficient and flexible manner. It works on the basis of the original simple terms of the facets and a small set of positive and/or negative statements. In each algebraic operation, we adopt a closed-world assumption with res...

The starting point of this paper is the external surface of a w ord form, for example the agent-external acoustic perturbations constituting a lan guage sign in speech or the dots on paper in the case of written language. The external surfaces are modality-dependent tokens which the hearer recognizes by means of (i) pattern-matching and (ii) a mapping into modality-independent types, and which the speaker produces by an inverse mapping from modality-independent types into tokens synthesized in a modality of choice. The types are provided by a lexicon stored in the agent's memo ry. They include not only the necessary1 properties of the surface shape, but also the associated morphosyn- tactic properties and the meaning. The question addressed by this paper is how to design the lexical analysis of word form types as a data structure (abstract data type), suitable for the purpose of Database Semantics (DBS), i.e., for a computational model of natural language communication.2 After d...

This paper compares the semantic interpretation of logical , programming, and natural languages. It shows that they are based on different ontologies, and in- vestigates the relation between the ontology assumed and the analysis of empir- ical phenomena such as truth, the Epimenides paradox, propositional attitudes, and vagueness. Furthermore, it shows that there is a basic di fference between a metalanguage-based and a procedural semantics, and that the choice between them depends on the ontology presumed.

Information systems and database systems development is a very complex process. In the past database development has mainly be considered as development of database structuring. Interactivity specification and partially functionality specification has been neglected in the past. The derivability of functionality has been a reason for this restriction of the database design approach. At the same time, applications and the required functionality became more complex. Distribution specification is based on the description of collaboration and exchange frames. The integration of all these parts of the information systems design process has not yet been performed. The co-design approach aims in bridging all these different aspects of applications and provides additionally a sound methodology for development of all these aspects. The co-design framework is based on a number of steps that must be performed. These steps must be based on a well-recorded management, on a development stewardshi...

Conclusions The present research project aims at developing computer-hased analysis and description techniques in modelling the situated processes of children's conceptual learning in an open, tool rich-learning context mediated hy free exploration and social activities. ...

Database semantics (dbs) was developed originally to model the basic mechanism of natural language communication (Hausser 2001). This important application is extended here to another crucial task of cognitive modelling, namely the task of pattern completion during recognition. It consists in efficiently reconstructing a complex concept from its basic parts. It is shown that the data structure of dbs, called a word bank, supports recognition by providing for any elementary concept matching part of a complex external object all potential candidates connected to it. In this way recognition is provided with a limited set of concepts to actively try to match against other parts of the complex object. Once a second basic concept has been matched successfully and connected to the first, the database provides a much smaller list of potential candidates for a third basic concept, etc. This algorithm converges very quickly. The basic concepts are defined as geons, in accordance with the RBC (recognition by components) or geon theory by (Biederman, 1987). Geons are structures of a complexity intermediate between features and templates, e.g., cubes, spheres, or cylinders. The approach works also for the hypothetical reconstruction of the unseen side of a known object, explained by (Barsalu, 1999) on the basis of frames.

... the history of an IS development, keeping tmck of each transformation of the ... not possible without an adequate process modeL Moreover capturing process knowledge is important to reason about the consequences of changing conditions and requirements in system ...