Semantics

Return to General Topics

This section introduces semantics as a general DIDO Solutions topic. It explains why semantics matters, how semantics differs from structure and interpretation, and how different semantic artefacts express meaning across DIDO Solutions efforts.

The section also identifies several kinds of semantics that occur in architecture, modelling, reporting, governance, and implementation work.

Semantics addresses meaning within a defined context. In architecture, semantics applies to designations, expressions, model elements, data items, rules, statements, events, messages, reports, schemas, types, ontologies, and implementation artefacts.

Semantics provides the basis for shared interpretation across organisations, systems, technologies, jurisdictions, and governance processes. Without semantic discipline, systems exchange data successfully while participants still disagree about what the data means.

DIDO Solutions treats semantics as meaning first, structured domain commitment second, and implementation technology third. Ontologies, RDF, OWL, schemas, type systems, vocabularies, business rules, reports, and executable logic all express semantic content in different ways. No single artefact or technology defines the full scope of semantics.

Semantics remains distinct from structure and interpretation.

Structure defines form. A structure includes a field, a datatype, a schema, a message, a topic, a table, a class, a report element, or a model element.

Semantics explains what that structure means. A field named settlementDate has a structure because it has a name and a data type. The field has semantics when the architecture defines what settlement means, which event establishes the date, which party relies on the date, and which rules constrain the date.

Interpretation applies rules, calculations, classifications, policies, or reasoning to information using semantic context. Interpretation depends on semantics because an interpreter requires a defined meaning before applying rules to information.

Semantics matters because DIDO Solutions' work spans distributed organisations, financial-domain concepts, standards activities, regulatory contexts, implementation technologies, and governance responsibilities.

Semantic discipline supports:

• Shared understanding across organisations
• Consistent use of terms and definitions
• Traceability from concepts to implementation artefacts
• Alignment between conceptual models, schemas, reports, and code
• Validation of messages, events, reports, and lifecycle states
• Governance of meaning across standards and implementations
• Separation of domain meaning from technology-specific representation
• Detection of semantic errors that syntax alone does not reveal

A system that accepts syntactically valid data still misinterprets the data when the system applies the wrong semantic meaning.

• Taxonomy of Semantics