A controlled language for the specification of contracts

Abstract

Controlled natural languages have been used to enable the direct translation from natural language specifications into a formal description. In this paper we make a case for such an approach to write contracts, and translating into a temporal deontic logic. Combining both temporal behaviour and deontic behaviour is challenging both from a natural language and a formal logic perspective. We present both a logic and a controlled natural language and outline how the two can be linked. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.