SBVR — Chapters 8,9,11,12

"Explicitly Stated SBVR Architectural Principles for Relationships among 'Definitions' 'Rules' and 'Semantic Formulations'" Issue Statement: The lack of an explicitly stated, concise set of SBVR architectural principles regarding the relationship of 'definitions' 'rules' and 'semantic formulations' is causing much needless SBVR-FTF discussion around related topics. If this lack is causing a problem for the creators of SBVR, then it's going to be even harder for people in the rest of the world to understand and agree on this critical aspect of SBVR. A (strawman) set of SBVR architectural principles needs to be explicitly stated in SBVR as follows: 1. 'Definitions' and 'rules' are not the same thing as 'semantic formulations'. 2. 'Semantic formulations' structure the meaning of 'definitions' and of 'rules'. 3. The meaning of an 'operative business rule' is structured by a 'semantic formulation' that introduces an 'obligation'. 4. The meaning of a 'structural rule / definitional rule / definitional criterion' is structured by a 'semantic formulation' that introduces a 'necessity' which itself means 'true by definition'. 5. 'Intensional definitions' are made up of definitional components of two types: a. a 'more general concept' b. one or more 'delimiting' components 6. These 'delimiting' components may take either of two forms which are equivalent in meaning and can be converted to the other form at will without loss of meaning: a. the form of a 'characteristic' b. the form of a 'structural rule / definitional rule / definitional criterion' 7. The 'intensional definitions' in an SBVR Vocabulary can be composed using three combinations of these two forms: a. All definitions composed only of a 'more general concept' plus one or more 'structural rules / definitional rules / definitional criteria' b. All definitions composed only of a 'more general concept' (plus one or more 'characteristics'. c. Definitions composed of a 'more general concept' plus some 'structural rules / definitional rules / definitional criteria' and some 'characteristics' – (the way many of the SBVR concepts are defined). 8. 'Structural rules / definitional rules / definitional criteria' exist only as components of an 'intensional definition'. This is a corollary of 'true by definition'.. 9. For a given discrete meaning there is a set of 'semantic formulations' that give form to its meaning. 10. There is a one-to-one relationship between an 'operative business rule' and the set of 'semantic formulations' of its discrete meaning. 11. There is a one-to-one relationship between a 'delimiting' component of an 'intensional definition' and the set of 'semantic formulations' of its discrete meaning.

This Issue is too big to resolve in one piece. It has been broken into manageable pieces as, and replaced by, Issues 10571, 10572,, 10573, 10574, 10575, 10576