Abstract
Subject domains are often conceptualized with entities stratified into a rigid two-level structure: a level of classes and a level of individuals which instantiate these classes. Multi-level modeling extends the conventional two-level classification scheme by admitting classes that are also instances of other classes, a feature which is key in a number of subject domains. Despite the advances in multi-level modeling in the last decade, a number of requirements arising from representation needs in subject domains have not yet been addressed in current modeling approaches. In this paper, we tackle this issue by proposing an expressive multi-level conceptual modeling language (dubbed ML2). We follow a principled approach in the design of ML2, constructing its abstract syntax as to reflect a formal theory for multi-level modeling (termed MLT*). We show that ML2 enables the expression of a number of multi-level modeling scenarios that cannot be currently expressed in the existing multi-level modeling languages. A textual syntax for ML2 is provided with an implementation in Xtext.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The ML2 editor can be found at https://github.com/nemo-ufes/ML2-Editor.
- 2.
The language’s grammar is available at https://github.com/nemo-ufes/ml2-grammar.
References
Almeida, J.P.A., Fonseca, C.M., Carvalho, V.A.: A comprehensive formal theory for multi-level conceptual modeling. In: Mayr, H.C., Guizzardi, G., Ma, H., Pastor, O. (eds.) ER 2017. LNCS, vol. 10650, pp. 280–294. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69904-2_23
Atkinson, C., Gerbig, R.: Melanie: multi-level modeling and ontology engineering environment. Proceedings of the 2nd International Master Class on Model-Driven Engineering Modeling Wizards - MW 2012. ACM Press, New York (2012)
Atkinson, C., Gerbig, R., Kühne, T.: Comparing multi-level modeling approaches. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Multi-level Modelling (2014)
Atkinson, C., Kühne, T.: Meta-level independent modeling. In: International Workshop “Model Engineering” (in Conjunction with ECOOP’2000), Cannes, France, p. 16 (2000)
Brasileiro, F., Almeida, J.P.A., Carvalho, V.A., Guizzardi, G.: Expressive multi-level modeling for the semantic web. In: Groth, P., et al. (eds.) ISWC 2016. LNCS, vol. 9981, pp. 53–69. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46523-4_4
Brasileiro, F., et al.: Applying a multi-level modeling theory to assess taxonomic hierarchies in Wikidata. In: Proceedings of the 25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 975–980 (2016)
Cardelli, L.: Structural subtyping and the notion of powertype. In: Proceedings of the 15th ACM Symposium of Principles of Programming Languages, pp. 70–79 (1988)
Carvalho, V.A., Almeida, J.P.A.: Toward a well-founded theory for multi-level conceptual modeling. Softw. Syst. Model., 1–27 (2016)
Clark, T., Gonzalez-Perez, C., Henderson-Sellers, B.: Foundation for multi-level modelling. In: CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 1286, pp. 43–52 (2014)
ECMA: The JSON Data Interchange Format, 1st edn. (2013). http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-404.pdf
Fonseca, C.M.: ML2: an expressive multi-level conceptual modeling language. Dissertation (master’s in informatics) - Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil (2017)
Foxvog, D.: Instances of instances modeled via higher-order classes, Foundational Aspects of Ontologies, (9–2005), pp. 46–54 (2005). http://www.uni-koblenz.de/fb4/publikationen/gelbereihe/RR-9-2005.pdf
Gonzalez-Perez, C., Henderson-Sellers, B.: A powertype-based metamodelling framework. Softw. Syst. Model. 5, 72–90 (2006)
Guizzardi, G.: Ontological Foundations for Structural Conceptual Models, 1st edn., The Netherlands (2005)
Guizzardi, G., et al.: Towards an ontological analysis of powertypes. In: Proceedings of the Joint Ontology Workshops 2015, p. 1517 (2015)
Jackson, D.: Software Abstractions: Logic, Language and Analysis. MIT Press, Cambridge (2006)
Jarke, M., et al.: ConceptBase - a deductive object base for meta data management. J. Intell. Inf. Syst. 4(2), 167–192 (1995)
Jeusfeld, M.A., Neumayr, B.: DeepTelos: multi-level modeling with most general instances. In: Comyn-Wattiau, I., Tanaka, K., Song, I.-Y., Yamamoto, S., Saeki, M. (eds.) ER 2016. LNCS, vol. 9974, pp. 198–211. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46397-1_15
de Lara, J., Guerra, E.: Deep Meta-modelling with MetaDepth. In: Vitek, J. (ed.) TOOLS 2010. LNCS, vol. 6141, pp. 1–20. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13953-6_1
Mayr, E.: The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. The Belknap Press, Cambridge (1982)
Mylopoulos, J.: Conceptual modeling and Telos. In: Loucopoulos, P., Zicari, R. (eds.) Conceptual Modelling, Databases, and CASE: an Integrated View of Information System Development, pp. 49–68. Wiley, New York (1992)
Neumayr, B., Grun, K., Schrefl, M.: Multi-level domain modeling with m-objects and m-relationships. In: 6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling, vol. 96, pp. 107–116 (2009)
Neumayr, B., Jeusfeld, M.A., Schrefl, M., Schütz, C.: Dual deep instantiation and its ConceptBase implementation. In: Jarke, M., et al. (eds.) CAiSE 2014. LNCS, vol. 8484, pp. 503–517. Springer, Cham (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07881-6_34
Odell, J.: Power types. J. Object-Oriented Program. 7(2), 8–12 (1994)
W3C: OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Document Overview (2009). http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-owl2-overview-20091027/
Acknowledgements
This work is partially supported by CNPq (grants number 407235/2017-5, 312123/2017-5 and 312158/2015-7), CAPES (23038.028816/2016-41), FAPES (69382549) and FUB (OCEAN Project).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fonseca, C.M., Almeida, J.P.A., Guizzardi, G., Carvalho, V.A. (2018). Multi-level Conceptual Modeling: From a Formal Theory to a Well-Founded Language. In: Trujillo, J., et al. Conceptual Modeling. ER 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11157. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00847-5_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00847-5_29
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00846-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00847-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)