9,752 research outputs found
A specification language for Lexical Functional Grammars
This paper defines a language L for specifying LFG grammars. This enables
constraints on LFG's composite ontology (c-structures synchronised with
f-structures) to be stated directly; no appeal to the LFG construction
algorithm is needed. We use L to specify schemata annotated rules and the LFG
uniqueness, completeness and coherence principles. Broader issues raised by
this work are noted and discussed.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX uses eaclap.sty; Procs of Euro ACL-9
Type-driven semantic interpretation and feature dependencies in R-LFG
Once one has enriched LFG's formal machinery with the linear logic mechanisms
needed for semantic interpretation as proposed by Dalrymple et. al., it is
natural to ask whether these make any existing components of LFG redundant. As
Dalrymple and her colleagues note, LFG's f-structure completeness and coherence
constraints fall out as a by-product of the linear logic machinery they propose
for semantic interpretation, thus making those f-structure mechanisms
redundant. Given that linear logic machinery or something like it is
independently needed for semantic interpretation, it seems reasonable to
explore the extent to which it is capable of handling feature structure
constraints as well.
R-LFG represents the extreme position that all linguistically required
feature structure dependencies can be captured by the resource-accounting
machinery of a linear or similiar logic independently needed for semantic
interpretation, making LFG's unification machinery redundant. The goal is to
show that LFG linguistic analyses can be expressed as clearly and perspicuously
using the smaller set of mechanisms of R-LFG as they can using the much larger
set of unification-based mechanisms in LFG: if this is the case then we will
have shown that positing these extra f-structure mechanisms is not
linguistically warranted.Comment: 30 pages, to appear in the the ``Glue Language'' volume edited by
Dalrymple, uses tree-dvips, ipa, epic, eepic, fullnam
Strategic Port Graph Rewriting: An Interactive Modelling and Analysis Framework
We present strategic portgraph rewriting as a basis for the implementation of
visual modelling and analysis tools. The goal is to facilitate the
specification, analysis and simulation of complex systems, using port graphs. A
system is represented by an initial graph and a collection of graph rewriting
rules, together with a user-defined strategy to control the application of
rules. The strategy language includes constructs to deal with graph traversal
and management of rewriting positions in the graph. We give a small-step
operational semantics for the language, and describe its implementation in the
graph transformation and visualisation tool PORGY.Comment: In Proceedings GRAPHITE 2014, arXiv:1407.767
An Abstract Machine for Unification Grammars
This work describes the design and implementation of an abstract machine,
Amalia, for the linguistic formalism ALE, which is based on typed feature
structures. This formalism is one of the most widely accepted in computational
linguistics and has been used for designing grammars in various linguistic
theories, most notably HPSG. Amalia is composed of data structures and a set of
instructions, augmented by a compiler from the grammatical formalism to the
abstract instructions, and a (portable) interpreter of the abstract
instructions. The effect of each instruction is defined using a low-level
language that can be executed on ordinary hardware.
The advantages of the abstract machine approach are twofold. From a
theoretical point of view, the abstract machine gives a well-defined
operational semantics to the grammatical formalism. This ensures that grammars
specified using our system are endowed with well defined meaning. It enables,
for example, to formally verify the correctness of a compiler for HPSG, given
an independent definition. From a practical point of view, Amalia is the first
system that employs a direct compilation scheme for unification grammars that
are based on typed feature structures. The use of amalia results in a much
improved performance over existing systems.
In order to test the machine on a realistic application, we have developed a
small-scale, HPSG-based grammar for a fragment of the Hebrew language, using
Amalia as the development platform. This is the first application of HPSG to a
Semitic language.Comment: Doctoral Thesis, 96 pages, many postscript figures, uses pstricks,
pst-node, psfig, fullname and a macros fil
Amalia -- A Unified Platform for Parsing and Generation
Contemporary linguistic theories (in particular, HPSG) are declarative in
nature: they specify constraints on permissible structures, not how such
structures are to be computed. Grammars designed under such theories are,
therefore, suitable for both parsing and generation. However, practical
implementations of such theories don't usually support bidirectional processing
of grammars. We present a grammar development system that includes a compiler
of grammars (for parsing and generation) to abstract machine instructions, and
an interpreter for the abstract machine language. The generation compiler
inverts input grammars (designed for parsing) to a form more suitable for
generation. The compiled grammars are then executed by the interpreter using
one control strategy, regardless of whether the grammar is the original or the
inverted version. We thus obtain a unified, efficient platform for developing
reversible grammars.Comment: 8 pages postscrip
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