SBVR — Unnecessary Grammatical Structure

The specializations of ‘noun form’, namely ‘nominal restrictive form’, ‘mathematical form’ and ‘gerund form’, delve into grammatical structure, which SBVR generally avoids. It is sufficient to distinguish forms of expression into being propositional versus being nounish. The examples given for the different kinds of noun forms are helpful, but they can be given without introducing the added grammatical complexity into the formal metamodel. Also, these specializations are not complete with respect to noun forms and it is beyond the scope of SBVR to make the specializations complete.

Recommendation:

The following edits preserve and combine explanatory material and examples from the unwanted specializations and then delete the specializations. Brackets are used to show words that should be underlined (not the term style). The numerals attached to “number” should all be subscripts.

8.3.4 (pg. 25-26)

Add the following note to the entry for ‘noun form’ just below its definition.

Note: A noun form can have a placeholder for each role of a fact type, in which case the noun form result comes from the of role the first placeholder is for. A noun form can also have one less placeholder than there are roles, in which case the noun form result comes from the role that no placeholder is for.

Replace the examples in the entry for ‘noun form’ with these:

Example: ‘[transferred car] of [car transfer]’ for the fact type ‘[car transfer] has transferred car]’. This form yields a transferred car.

Example: ‘| [number] |’ for the fact type ‘[number] has [absolute value]’. The form yields the absolute value of the number.

Example: ‘[number1] + [number2]’ for the fact type ‘[number1] + [number2] = [number3]’. This form yields the third number – the sum of adding the first two numbers.

Example: ‘transferring [rental car]’ for the fact type ‘[car transfer] has [transferred car]’. This form yields the car transfer, which is an action. Gerunds are used in noun forms like this for actions, events and states. They are used in sentences like this: “A rental car must be cleaned before transferring the rental car.”

Remove the entire entries for ‘mathematical form’, ‘nominal restrictive form’ and ‘gerund form’.

I can provide an updated Figure 8.4 on page 24.

see above