6.4.1 RULES

Having discussed the nature of semantics, we should look at the mechanisms used to define and bound the morphological and syntactical spaces of L' and L'' and to connect the multiple semantic dimensions. It is at this point that the concept of the rule must be introduced.

A rule serves to establish regulation or guide conduct, procedure, or usage. A rule establishes what can be done or what cannot be done. In effect, the syntactic model L'' does just that. By limiting the morphology and syntax of the model it regulates the symbols used for authoring and conversation. This is the crux of some arguments in semiotic literature, that the language itself enforces the rules of conversation and thereby thought itself. As justification for the viability of authoring multiple modeling languages, it is furthermore argued that language is not entirely objective, but subject to the society and culture which produces it [Volosinov 73].

While rules connoted motion and dynamics in their dealings with the changing state of a system, in and of themselves they are static. Here, the distinction between models and rules can be blurred. A model can act as a rule in its imposition of boundaries, particularly with regards to the syntactic boundaries of our concern. Likewise, a rule can act as a model by imposing limits or boundaries on a space of conduct.

If distinction were needed to be made, it could be said that a rule can be narrowly defined as a model of behavior. A rule, however, can mimic the static nature of boundary models in its detection and forbiddance of attempts to cross a boundary. As evidenced by production-based programming languages, whole models can be defined in terms of rules.