Obtaining E-R diagrams semi-automatically from natural language specifications

Since their inception, entity relationship models have played a central role in systems specification, analysis and development. They have become an important part of several development methodologies and standards such as SSADM. Obtaining entity relationship models, can however, be a lengthy and time consuming task for all but the very smallest of specifications. This paper describes a semi-automatic approach for obtaining entity relationship models from natural language specifications. The approach begins by using natural language analysis techniques to translate sentences to a meaning representation language called logical form language. The logical forms of the sentences are used as a basis for identifying the entities and relationships. Heuristics are then used to suggest suitable degrees for the identified relationships. This paper describes and illustrates the main phases of the approach and presents a summary of the results obtained when it is applied to a case study