Conceptual modeling from natural language functional specifications

Abstract

In this paper we describe a structured method for developing a conceptual data model by starting from a functional model expressed in a natural language. We have used the Conceptual Dependency theory for mapping natural language descriptions to conceptual dependency diagrams. We have developed algorithms to convert these conceptual dependency diagrams into unit conceptual dependency tables, which are then merged to represent the whole context of the application. We also show how transactional requirements can be incorporated into the unit conceptual dependency table, and subsequently convert the unit conceptual dependency table into a corresponding conceptual model. We have developed an augmented transition network (ATN) parser to develop conceptual dependency diagrams from natural language descriptions. A prototype system has been implemented using Oracle8i and developer platforms.