Abstract

Interorganizational telecommunications-mediated messages are nearly always expressed either in natural language (via telephone, telex, electronic mail, etc) or through specific protocols developed for the application at hand. Natural language expression is powerful, flexible, equivocal, and not generally machine readable. Specific protocols have a limited expressive power, are inflexible, can be unequivocal, and are machine readable. This paper commences an exploration of the possibility of using a formal language for interorganizational messaging. Such a strategy promises to combine the virtues of natural language and of specific protocols for communication. Formal logic is a natural basis for such a language. Recent developments in illocutionary logic (an extension of predicate logic) bid fair to provide a sound basis for a formal language for business communications. The paper discusses these concepts and how they might be implemented.

Share

COinS