An approach to the formal specification of lingware

This paper has two purposes. First, it suggests a formal approach for specifying and verifying lingware. This approach is based on a unified notation of the main existing formalisms for describing linguistic knowledge (i.e. Formal Grammars, Unification Grammars, HPSG, etc.) on the one hand, and the integration of data and processing on the other. Accordingly, a lingware specification includes all related aspects in a unified framework. This facilitates the development of a lingware system, since one has to follow a single development process instead of two separate ones. Secondly, it presents an environment for the formal specification of lingware, based on the suggested approach, which is neither restricted to a particular kind of application nor to a particular class of linguistic formalisms. This environment provides interfaces enabling the specification of both linguistic knowledge and functional aspects of a lingware system. Linguistic knowledge is specified with the usual grammatical formalisms, whereas functional aspects are specified with a suitable formal notation. Both descriptions will be integrated into the same framework to obtain a complete requirement specification that can be refined towards an executable program.

[1]  Y. Wilks,et al.  A General Architecture for Text Engineering (gate) { a New Approach to Language Engineering R&d a General Architecture for Text Engineering (gate) | a New Approach to Language Engineering R&d a E G T , 1995 .

[2]  Jonathan P. Bowen,et al.  Applications of Formal Methods , 1995 .

[3]  Mohamed Jmaiel,et al.  An Environment for Formal Specification and Verification of Lingware , 2001, IEA/AIE.

[4]  Mohamed Jmaiel,et al.  Using a Formal Approach to Evaluate Grammars , 2000, LREC.

[5]  Anthony Hall.  Using Formal Methods to Develop an ATC Information System , 1996, IEEE Softw..

[6]  Mohamed Jmaiel.  Specification of communication protocols using temporal logic , 1996, J. Syst. Softw..

[7]  Ivan A. Sag,et al.  Book Reviews: Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar and German in Head-driven Phrase-structure Grammar , 1996, CL.

[8]  Cliff B. Jones,et al.  Systematic software development using VDM (2. ed.) , 1990, Prentice Hall International Series in Computer Science.

[9]  Wojciech Skut,et al.  A Report on the Draft EAGLES Encoding Standard for HPSG , 1996 .

[10]  Hartmut Ehrig,et al.  Fundamentals of Algebraic Specification 2: Module Specifications and Constraints , 1990 .

[11]  Gosse Bouma,et al.  Hdrug. A Flexible and Extendible Development Environment for Natural Language Processing. , 1997 .

[12]  John A. McDermid,et al.  Formal Methods: Use and Relevance for the Development of Safety-Critical Systems , 1992, Comput. J..

[13]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar , 1985 .

[14]  Karen Jensen,et al.  Natural Language Processing: The PLNLP Approach , 2013, Natural Language Processing.

[15]  Ralph Grishman,et al.  TIPSTER Text Phase II Architecture Design Version 2.1p 19 June 1996 , 1996, TIPSTER.

[16]  Nancy G. Leveson,et al.  Completeness and Consistency in Hierarchical State-Based Requirements , 1996, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[17]  John Dawes,et al.  The VDM-SL Reference Guide , 1991 .

[18]  J. Michael Spivey,et al.  Understanding Z : A specification language and its formal semantics , 1985, Cambridge tracts in theoretical computer science.

[19]  Lauri Karttunen,et al.  D-PATR: A Development Environment for Unification-Based Grammars , 1986, COLING.