Logical English Dialect for Accountancy

Logical English (LE) is a controlled natural language which is written in English sentences and those sentences can be translated into logic programming languages such as Prolog, Datalog, or Answer Set Programming.  Note that logic programming can be effectively converted to other programming approaches.

Now, imagine a dialect of Logical English specific to Accountancy.  Accountancy has it's on jargon.  Accounting is the language of business.  Basically, the Logical English Dialect for Accountancy would be (a) a more restricted set of Logical English and (b) supplemented with additional specific terms necessary to work effectively in the area of knowledge called accountancy.  This language and terminology is aligned with ISO/IEC Accounting and Economic Ontology, XBRL International's Open Information Model (OIM), OMG's Standard Business Report Model (SBRM), and my Seattle Method. All of this is coordinated and the atomic design methodology is used to create a high level model to manage complexity effectively.

An now imagine this "set of spreadsheets" which are provided in a global open standard format, XBRL. (Here are all the files.) Those "spreadsheets" are really knowledge graphs of meaning as contrast to the sheets, columns, rows, and cells of a traditional electronic spreadsheet.  Think modern spreadsheets.

To understand the value of Logical English, read the article Using logic programming for theory representation and scientific inference; but as you read think the following:

  1. Think “accountancy” rather than “scientific” as used in the article.
  2. Rather than using the PROLOG syntax as shown in the article, you would use Logical English or even better that dialect of Logical English specific to accountancy
  3. Imagine being able to “communicate” with a set of spreadsheets, specifically this set of spreadsheets, each spreadsheet is logically interconnected (i.e. think of each hypercube as a separate spreadsheet but all the spreadsheets are connected)
  4. Imagine being able to ask questions of that set of spreadsheets using Logical English Dialect for Accountancy.
  5. Imagine applying this to a set of audit working papers or accounting working papers that supported a financial statement.
And so, imagine being able to ask this "spreadsheet" questions using Logical English Dialect for Accountancy: (you can use this viewer to look at the different "spreadsheets")


It is critical for subject matter experts within an area of knowledge or a community of practice to communicate effectively with software engineers.  Logical English can help make that happen also.

Additional Information:

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