SBVR12 — Individual Verb Concept

Title: Fix the anomaly in the subcategory structure of ‘concept’ to include ‘individual verb concept’ in SBVR
Source:
RuleML Initiative, John Hall, (john.hall@modelsystems.co.uk)
Summary:
SBVR handles noun concepts and verb concepts asymmetrically:
• ‘concept’ generalizes ‘noun concept’ and ‘verb concept’
• ‘noun concept’ generalizes ‘general concept’ and ‘individual concept’ – i.e. ‘general concept’ means ‘general noun concept’ and ‘individual concept’ means ‘individual noun concept’
There are no equivalents for ‘verb concept’. SBVR does not explicitly define ‘individual verb concept’, so cannot say:
• ‘individual concept’ generalizes ‘individual noun concept’ and ‘individual verb concept’ (inheriting from: ‘concept’ generalizes ‘noun concept’ and ‘verb concept’)
• ‘verb concept’ generalizes ‘general verb concept’ and ‘individual verb concept’ (paralleling: ‘noun concept’ generalizes ‘general noun concept’ and ‘individual noun concept’)
If it did, this structural inconsistency would be removed.
It would also be helpful in using SBVR. Individual noun concepts, such as “EU-Rent” and “Luxembourg”, are useful in defining bodies of shared meanings in SBVR. If SBVR included ‘individual verb concept’, an SBVR body of shared meanings could include individual verb concepts such as “EU-Rent is incorporated in Luxembourg”.
Resolution:
1. Change the preferred term that is currently ‘individual concept’ to ‘individual noun concept’ to clarify that it applies to noun concepts only
2. Add the concept ‘individual verb concept’ for a proposition that is a Clause 8 verb concept with all its roles quantified (closed) by individual (noun) concepts to fix the anomaly in the subcategory structure of ‘concept’.

Revised Text:
On printed page 22 in Clause 8.1.1
REPLACE the current term heading “individual concept” WITH “individual noun concept”

And REPLACE “concept”, the first term in the definition, WITH “noun concept”

On printed page 27 in Clause 8.1.2 at the end of the clause ADD this entry for ‘individual verb concept’:

individual verb concept

Definition: proposition that is based on exactly one verb concept in which each verb concept role is filled by an individual noun concept
Note: … some explanatory comments
Example: … some illustrative examples

REPLACE the signifier “individual concept” WITH “individual noun concept” in the following places (but not in the “Source” subentry reference to ISO 1087-1 in entry for the concept current termed “individual concept’)

• … to be identified and added

REPLACE the following diagrams WITH diagrams that repolace the signifier “individual concept” with “individual noun concept”:

• Figure 8.1
• Figure 9.3
• Figure 11.2

… plus fixes for any additional side effects:

Add to Clause 8:
• unitary verb concept: a general verb concept that has one instance (which can change over time) in its extension
• individual verb concept: a proposition that is derived from a general verb concept by closing each of its roles with an individual noun concept, so that it has one instance (which cannot change over time) in its extension
• general verb concept: to complete the segmentation of verb concept and distinguish this kind of verb concept from the other two.