Introduction to Gellish
Gellish is a general purpose and extensible language for data storage, data exchange and data integration. It enables systems interoperability without the need for data model harmonization or data conversion. Information that is expressed in Gellish is computer interpretable and application system independent. Gellish provides a single way of expressing information about any subject area.
Gellish English is only one of the members of a family of formalized natural languages. The family members share definitions of concepts, whereas in principle, for each natural language the Gellish dictionary is extended with a vocabulary that links each concept to one or more terms (names and synonyms) and optionally textual definitions in that language. In this way vocabularies are created for formalized English, formalized Dutch and in principle for other formalized natural languages.
Gellish expressions include the information that is required for interpreting the meaning of the expressions. This implies that Gellish expressions do not need separate data models or other documentation for their interpretation.
The various kinds of information that can be expressed in Gellish include the expression of knowledge about possibilities, requirements, definitions, as well as information about any individual things, processes and documents and queries about all of that. The value of being a formalized language is that the language is formally defined, so that computer software can unambiguously interpret the meaning from the expressions. In this way Gellish differs from natural language processing (NLP) which do not define a language but try to interpret or generate unconstrained natural language expressions.
Data from non-Gellish databases can be converted to and from Gellish expressions by Gellish enabled software that is driven by Gellish mapping tables. Gellish expressions can be imported, interpreted and stored in (object oriented) database systems and semantic networks for further processing. This is demonstrated in the Gellish Communicator reference application on GitHub. Queries and dialogs can be expressed in the Gellish formalized languages as well. This eliminates the need for separate query languages.
The structure of Gellish expressions is defined in the document the ‘Gellish Syntax and Contextual Facts – Nov 2020‘. It defines a standard tabular Gellish Expression format. It enables storage in any tabular format, such as XLSX, CSV or JSON.
Another advantage of Gellish is that its definition includes an electronic taxonomic dictionary and ontology that provides the concepts and terminology of the language, whereas the dictionary is extensible by any user. The power of a taxonomic dictionary is that all defined concepts inherit the knowledge about all their supertype concepts. This greatly simplifies searching and retrieval of information and it eliminates the need for re-specifying knowledge for subtypes of defined concepts. The dictionary is itself written in Gellish, so that it can be imported and used in any Gellish enabled system. Each concept in the dictionary is represented by a natural language independent unique identifier (UID) whereas the concepts are denoted by various terms (synonyms and translations) in the formalized natural languages. The use of UIDs that represent the concepts make that information is stored in a language independent way. This enables that information that is expressed in one of the formalized languages can be automatically translated by Gellish enabled software from that one formalized language to any other language. For example, queries in Formal Dutch, can be executed on databases that are in English, and the queries as well as the results can be presented to users in Dutch or any other language and vice versa. This is possible between any languages for which formal dictionaries are available.
The creation of Gellish expressions is supported by the Gellish Semantic Information Modeling Methodology. This is a consistent methodology that provides guidance on how to express, store and exchange information, knowledge and requirements as collections of high quality semantic expressions that are unambiguous, consistent and by definition integrated.
The Methodology is documented in the book: ‘Semantic Information Modeling Methodology’. The book discusses general principles and guidelines for semantic modeling as well as among others topics such as: A generic integrated information architecture, the creation of taxonomic dictionaries and product catalogs, the expression of knowledge (the modeling of possibilities), the expression of requirements, the creation of information models, such as models of facilities and products as well as processes and activities, including also modeling of 2D drawings and the shapes of 3D objects.
The Gellish Information Management Methodology provides guidance for organizations on a systematic approach for the management, integration and quality control of their information, knowledge and requirements, including data, textual documents, drawings and 3D models.
For information about Gellish in other languages see: Russian and for Dutch see Gellish Nederlands (in Dutch).
Continue with: Formalized languages.
