SBVR 1.0b2 FTF Avatar
  1. OMG Issue

SBVR — Annex E/EU-Rent vocabulary's 'characteristic' entries

  • Key: SBVR-55
  • Legacy Issue Number: 9621
  • Status: closed  
  • Source: Trisotech ( Ms. Keri Anderson Healy)
  • Summary:

    There are some inconsistencies between Annex C (which explains proper SBVR
    Structured English) and Annex E (which illustrates proper usage of SBVR
    Structured English), as follows:

    point-1) The unary fact type definitions are not written as fact type
    definitions – i.e., beginning with a definite article ("the") plus the
    placeholder term, and then saying something propositional. Instead, they
    are written in the style appropriate to a noun concept – i.e., leading with
    a term, followed by restrictive clauses.

    point-2) The form of expression of the entry concept uses a participle –
    e.g., 'having' or 'being') rather than an active verb. I was told that, in
    SBVR Structured English, using the participle implies meaning in addition to
    the naked fact type. That additional meaning is generally handled within a
    semantic formulation that uses the fact type.

    point-3) There is some ambiguity about the use of quantifiers (etc.) in the
    form of expression. (ref. SBVR p. 201, final sentence of C.3.1), which
    says, "It is recommended that quantifiers (including articles) and logical
    operators not be embedded within designations and forms of expression."
    Often we see a 'characteristic' (unary fact type) that uses an article
    or quantifier. Is that incorrect? Or does 'unary fact type' have a
    different set of guidelines for its form of expression?

  • Reported: SBVR 1.0b1 — Wed, 10 May 2006 04:00 GMT
  • Disposition: Resolved — SBVR 1.0b2
  • Disposition Summary:

    point-1) Unary fact type definition expressions, when presented using the SBVR Structured English Definition caption, should be written in the standard way for fact type definitions, i.e., beginning with a definite article ("the") plus the placeholder term, and then saying something propositional. Any Annex C definitions that are written in a style appropriate to a noun concept – i.e., leading with a term, followed by restrictive clauses – should be corrected during the general pass to correct Annex E (if retained as Definition-captioned text).
    point-2) The present participle form is an alternative for the fact type form of an entry concept. The Annex C explanation needed a small change to make this clear. (See below.)
    point-3) It was confirmed that the C.3.1 statement (cited in the Issue statement) applies to all designations and fact type forms. However, it is a guideline, which does not make any such cases in Annex E necessarily wrong.

  • Updated: Fri, 6 Mar 2015 20:58 GMT