Abstract
UML class diagrams can be used as a language for expressing a conceptual model of a domain. We use the General Ontological Language (GOL) and its underlying upper level ontology, proposed in [1], to evaluate the ontological correctness of a conceptual UML class model and to develop guidelines for how the constructs of the UML should be used in conceptual modeling. In particular, we discuss the UML metaconcepts of classes and objects, powertypes, association and aggregation/composition from an ontological point of view. We make some proposals of how to extend version 1.4 of the UML in order to obtain a more satisfactory treatment of aggregation.
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Guizzardi, G., Herre, H., Wagner, G. (2002). Towards Ontological Foundations for UML Conceptual Models. In: Meersman, R., Tari, Z. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2002: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE. OTM 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2519. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36124-3_70
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