Semantics Tab (Relationship/New Relationship Dialog Box)

Use this tab to display the entities that participate in a new or existing relationship and to:

• Add and delete entities to and from the relationship, and edit the role the entity plays in the relationship.
  
  
• Add, modify, and delete the phrasings for the relationship.
  
  
• Specify a time or location for the relationship.

Options

Entities

Add and delete entities to and from the relationship and edit the role the entity plays in the relationship.

Entities List

Display each entity that participates in the relationship.

Press CTRL or SHIFT and click the entities to select more than one entity.

Add/Edit/Delete

Specify a new entity to be used in the relationship, modify the role of the selected entity, or delete the role of the selected entity.

Deleting an entity from a command relationship does not delete it from the project.

When/Start/End

Specify when the relationship occurs, begins, or ends. Only available when a Date entity is in the relationship.

For example, for the relationship, People buy products, where the when entity is purchase_date, you can ask the following questions:

"When did John Smith buy a hammer?"
"Who bought a hammer first?"
"How many hammers were bought this year?"
"What did John Smith buy yesterday?"
"Which products were bought in January?"
"Who bought a product before December 5, 1995?"

For the relationship, Companies ship products, where the start entity is start_date and the end entity is end_date, you can ask the following questions:

"When did Acme start shipping Brand X Soap?"
"When did Acme stop shipping Brand X Soap?"
"Did Acme ship Brand X Soap in 1995?" This question can be answered only if both start and end dates are defined.

Default date

Specify that this relationship should assume the selected date. Click None to indicate that the relationship should use the global default setting. Available only when there is a Date entity in the relationship.

Duration

Specify the duration of the relationship.

For example, for the relationship, People run races where the duration entity is race_time, you can ask the following questions:

"How long did Mary run?"
"How long did it take for Mary to run the Boston Marathon?"
"Who ran the longest?"

Where

Specify the location of the relationship.

For example, for the relationship, People buy products and the location entity, store, you can ask the following questions:

"Where did Peter buy flowers?"

For the relationship Cities are in states and the location entity is state, you can ask the following question:

"Where is Chicago?"

Phrasings

List all of the phrasings added to the relationship.

Specify phrasings for a relationship. Phrasings are a way to talk about a relationship in English. Choose the phrasings that most closely reflect how users would ask their questions.

For example, Salespeople sell customers products is a verb phrasing that describes a relationship between salespeople and product.

Add/Edit/Delete

Add a phrasing type that represents the selected relationship and modify or delete the selected phrasing.

Group/Ungroup

Specify that the selected phrasings are required to work together in order to describe the relationship, or separate the phrasings.

Help text

Specify Help about this entity. Users view this information in the Question Builder or by asking questions such as "What do you know about customers?"

See Also

Command Tab (Relationship/New Relationship Dialog Box)

Database Tab (Relationship/New Relationship Dialog Box)

Defining Relationship Phrasings

Grouped Phrasings Examples