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TU Braunschweig

Roland Kaschek: Metaphors in Conceptual Modeling

Conceptual modeling is a key activity in software development. It is, however, only rarely the subject of research. Conceptual modeling heavily concerns characteristics of human thought and language use. Therefore respective research is considered as significant for researching conceptual modeling. Metaphor has become an important and active are of research. The use of metaphor according Lakoff and Johnson is pervading thought and language. The talk therefore proposes to employ the concept of metaphor for an analysis of conceptual modeling. Two metaphors are identified that are frequently used in conceptual modeling, i.e. INFORMATION IS A NETWORK and INFORMATION IS A CONTAINER. The use of these metaphors in conceptual modeling is discussed as well as some of its consequences and benefits.