Semantic translation is the process of using
semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
information to aid in the translation of data in one representation or
data model
A data model is an abstract model that organizes elements of data and standardizes how they relate to one another and to the properties of real-world entities. For instance, a data model may specify that the data element representing a car be c ...
to another representation or data model.
Semantic translation takes advantage of semantics that associate meaning with individual
data element
In metadata, the term data element is an atomic unit of data that has precise meaning or precise semantics. A data element has:
# An identification such as a data element name
# A clear data element definition
# One or more representation terms
...
s in one
dictionary to create an equivalent meaning in a second system.
An example of semantic translation is the conversion of
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. ...
data from one data model to a second data model using formal
ontologies for each system such as the
Web Ontology Language
The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies. Ontologies are a formal way to describe taxonomies and classification networks, essentially defining the structure of knowledge for vario ...
(OWL). This is frequently required by
intelligent agents that wish to perform searches on remote computer systems that use different data models to store their data elements. The process of allowing a single user to search multiple systems with a single search request is also known as
federated search
Federated search retrieves information from a variety of sources via a search application built on top of one or more search engines. A user makes a single query request which is distributed to the search engines, databases or other query engine ...
.
Semantic translation should be differentiated from
data mapping
In computing and data management, data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models. Data mapping is used as a first step for a wide variety of data integration tasks, including:
* Data transformat ...
tools that do simple one-to-one translation of data from one system to another without actually associating meaning with each data element.
Semantic translation requires that data elements in the source and destination systems have "semantic mappings" to a central registry or registries of data elements. The simplest mapping is of course where there is equivalence.
There are three types of
Semantic equivalence:
*
Class Equivalence - indicating that class or "concepts" are equivalent. For example: "Person" is the same as "Individual"
*
Property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
Equivalence - indicating that two properties are equivalent. For example: "PersonGivenName" is the same as "FirstName"
*
Instance Equivalence - indicating that two individual instances of objects are equivalent. For example: "Dan Smith" is the same person as "Daniel Smith"
Semantic translation is very difficult if the terms in a particular data model do not have direct one-to-one mappings to data elements in a foreign data model. In that situation, an alternative approach must be used to find mappings from the original data to the foreign data elements. This problem can be alleviated by centralized metadata registries that use the ISO-11179 standards such as the
National Information Exchange Model (NIEM).
See also
*
Data mapping
In computing and data management, data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models. Data mapping is used as a first step for a wide variety of data integration tasks, including:
* Data transformat ...
*
Federated search
Federated search retrieves information from a variety of sources via a search application built on top of one or more search engines. A user makes a single query request which is distributed to the search engines, databases or other query engine ...
*
Intelligent agents
*
ISO/IEC 11179
The ISO/IEC 11179 Metadata Registry (MDR) standard is an international ISO/ IEC standard for representing metadata for an organization in a metadata registry. It documents the standardization and registration of metadata to make data understand ...
*
National Information Exchange Model
*
Semantic heterogeneity
Semantic heterogeneity is when database schema or datasets for the same domain are developed by independent parties, resulting in differences in meaning and interpretation of data values. Beyond structured data, the problem of semantic heterogen ...
*
Semantic mapper
*
Semantic Web
*
Vocabulary-based transformation
In metadata, a vocabulary-based transformation (VBT) is a transformation aided by the use of a semantic equivalence statements within a controlled vocabulary.
Many organizations today require communication between two or more computers. Althoug ...
*
Web Ontology Language
The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies. Ontologies are a formal way to describe taxonomies and classification networks, essentially defining the structure of knowledge for vario ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semantic Translation
Data management
Enterprise application integration
Semantics