Towards Hybrid Semantics of Enterprise Modeling Languages

Enterprise Modeling Languages (EMLs) are generally perceived as conceptual modeling languages having a formal syntax and informal semantics. The non-formality of semantics is mainly caused by the materiality of the addressed domain (enterprises and its related aspects) and the resulting personal interpretation of syntactical constructs. However, EMLs may also explicitly define invariant interpretations in the sense of possible model executions or the definition of domain-specific restrictions. It is therefore promising to address a possible amalgamation of material semantics and formal semantics in order to provide an integrated and comprehensive semantic specification of EMLs. This position paper introduces and motivates the topic by systematizing and consolidating approaches from both fields and introduces a framework for so-called hybrid semantics on the meta model layer. Further, the general relevance of semantics and semantic specifications in EMLs is emphasized and prospective research challenges are proposed.