Generative and recognoscitive grammars of ecological models

All models have in common that they encode experience and always involve si gns, signals, syntax, semantics and an ability to decode and derive meaning from what is encoded. Ecological models can be considered as complex struc tures and a new way of approaching to these models is through developing a formal language. In this paper, the authors develop the syntax's of a forma l language of complex structures, called here L(M), based on general assump tions from the theory of linguistic mathematics. The syntax and semantics p roposed are not a new methodology but a new linguistic interpretation of tr aditional methodologies. We develop this interpretation over a reproductive submodel of a more general one. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.