Conceptual Modeling

A conceptualization consists of the following components:

• a universe of discourse, which is the set of entities under consideration;
• concepts that identify sets of entities;
• relationships among these entities;
• Functions that map from entities to entities.

Conceptual modeling languages are languages that support the above components. This holds whether a given language is designed to model information systems or real-world processes. That is, a conceptual modeling language would include symbols that may be associated in different ways with entities, concepts, relationships, and functions.

Associating a conceptualization with the "real world" gives semantics to statements in a conceptual modeling language. Such an association of symbols to the world is termed an interpretation and an interpretation characterizes the meaning of a statement in the given con­ceptual modeling language. Typically, we are interested in the semantics of the language in general from which the semantics of its statements can be inferred. To capture the semantics of a language, we would nail down some, but not all. details of its intended interpretations. For example, a conceptual modeling language for document structure might fix the meanings of symbols such as "chapter” "section," "title," and "author" but let the other symbols in a statement be given meanings according to the particular needs of an application.

Modeling languages must provide explicit representations for concepts, which can be real or imaginary, tangible or intangible, and concrete (actual) or abstract (prototypical). For a few simple examples of concepts, your car is real, tangible, and concrete; a Porsche 91 IS is real, tangible, and abstract; your last vacation is real, intangible, and concrete; and a unicorn is imaginary, tangible, and abstract.

Second, modeling languages must provide means for representing relationships among the concepts. The representations might involve such relationships as ownership, causation.

Questionnaire:

• Explain about the conceptual modeling?