Skip to main content

Semantic Interpretation of Requirements through Cognitive Grammar and Configuration

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 8862))

Abstract

Many attempts have been made to apply Natural Language Processing to requirements specifications. However, typical approaches rely on shallow parsing to identify object-oriented elements of the specifications (e.g. classes, attributes, and methods). As a result, the models produced are often incomplete, imprecise, and require manual revision and validation. In contrast, we propose a deep Natural Language Understanding approach to create complete and precise formal models of requirements specifications. We combine three main elements to achieve this: (1) acquisition of lexicon from a user-supplied glossary requiring little specialised prior knowledge; (2) flexible syntactic analysis based purely on word-order; and (3) Knowledge-based Configuration unifies several semantic analysis tasks and allows the handling of ambiguities and errors. Moreover, we provide feedback to the user, allowing the refinement of specifications into a precise and unambiguous form. We demonstrate the benefits of our approach on an example from the PROMISE requirements corpus.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Abbot, R.: Program design by informal English descriptions. Comm. ACM 26(11), 882–894 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambriola, V., Gervasi, V.: Processing natural language requirements. In: Proc. Automated Software Engineering 1997, pp. 36–45. IEEE (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambriola, V., Gervasi, V.: On the systematic analysis of natural language requirements with CIRCE. Automated Software Engineering 13(1), 107–167 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anandha Mala, G.S., Uma, G.V.: Automatic construction of object oriented design models [UML diagrams] from natural language requirements specification. In: Yang, Q., Webb, G. (eds.) PRICAI 2006. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4099, pp. 1155–1159. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bajwa, I.S., Choudhary, M.A.: From natural language software specifications to UML class models. In: Zhang, R., Zhang, J., Zhang, Z., Filipe, J., Cordeiro, J. (eds.) ICEIS 2011. LNBIP, vol. 102, pp. 224–237. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Booch, G.: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Application, 2nd edn. Benjamin/Cummings, Redwood City (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Deeptimahanti, D.K., Sanyal, R.: Semi-automatic generation of UML models from natural language requirements. In: Proc. India Software Engineering Conference, ISEC 2011, pp. 165–174. ACM (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Estratat, M., Henocque, L.: Parsing languages with a configurator. In: de Mántaras, R.L., Saitta, L. (eds.) Proc. ECAI 2004, vol. 16, pp. 591–595. IOS Press (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • Harmain, H.M., Gaizauskas, R.: CM-Builder: A natural language-based CASE tool for object-oriented analysis. Automated Software Engineering 10(2), 157–181 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmqvist, K.B.I.: Implementing cognitive semantics: Image schemata, valence accommodation and valence suggestion for AI and computational linguistics. Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Cognitive Science Lund University, Lund, Sweden (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jurafsky, D., Martin, J.H.: Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language Processing. In: Computational Linguistics and Speech Recognition, 2nd edn. Prentice Hall (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleiner, M., Albert, P., Bézivin, J.: Parsing SBVR-based controlled languages. In: Schürr, A., Selic, B. (eds.) MODELS 2009. LNCS, vol. 5795, pp. 122–136. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Langacker, R.W. (ed.): Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • Letsholo, K., Zhao, L., Chioasca, E.V.: TRAM: A tool for transforming textual requirements into analysis models. In: Denney, E., Bultan, T., Zeller, A. (eds.) Proc. 2013 Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), pp. 738–741. IEEE/ACM (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, P., Jordan, M.I., Klein, D.: Learning dependency-based compositional semantics. Computational Linguistics 39(2), 389–446 (2013)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Menzies, T., Caglayan, B., He, Z., Kocaguneli, E., Krall, J., Peters, F., Turhan, B.: The PROMISE repository of empirical software engineering data (June 2012), http://promisedata.googlecode.com

  • Mich, L.: NL-OOPS: from natural language to object oriented requirements using the natural language processing system LOLITA. Natural Language Engineering 2(02), 161–187 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naradowsky, J., Vieira, T., Smith, D.: Grammarless parsing for joint inference. In: Kay, M., Boitet, C. (eds.) Proc. COLING 2012, pp. 1995–2010. The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  • Object Management Group (OMG): Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), v1.0 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • Soininen, T., Tiihonen, J., Männistö, T., Solunen, R.: Towards a general ontology of configuration. AI EDAM 12(04), 357–372 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stumptner, M., Friedrich, G.E., Haselböck, A.: Generative constraint-based configuration of large technical systems. AI EDAM 12(04), 307–320 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Selway, M., Mayer, W., Stumptner, M. (2014). Semantic Interpretation of Requirements through Cognitive Grammar and Configuration. In: Pham, DN., Park, SB. (eds) PRICAI 2014: Trends in Artificial Intelligence. PRICAI 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8862. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13560-1_40

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13560-1_40

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-13559-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13560-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics