Pattern matching in compilers

In this thesis we develop tools for effective and flexible pattern matching. We introduce a new pattern matching system called amethyst. Amethyst is not only a generator of parsers of programming languages, but can also serve as an alternative to tools for matching regular expressions. Our framework also produces dynamic parsers. Its intended use is in the context of IDE (accurate syntax highlighting and error detection on the fly). Amethyst offers pattern matching of general data structures. This makes it a useful tool for implementing compiler optimizations such as constant folding, instruction scheduling, and dataflow analysis in general. The parsers produced are essentially top-down parsers. Linear time complexity is obtained by introducing the novel notion of structured grammars and regularized regular expressions. Amethyst uses techniques known from compiler optimizations to produce effective parsers.Comment: master thesi

PLPrepare: A Grammar Checker for Challenging Cases

This study investigates one of the Polish language’s most arbitrary cases: the genitive masculine inanimate singular. It collects and ranks several guidelines to help language learners discern its proper usage and also introduces a framework to provide detailed feedback regarding arbitrary cases. The study tests this framework by implementing and evaluating a hybrid grammar checker called PLPrepare. PLPrepare performs similarly to other grammar checkers and is able to detect genitive case usages and provide feedback based on a number of error classifications

Parallel Natural Language Parsing: From Analysis to Speedup

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Second Language Sentence Processing: Is it fundamentally different?

In this dissertation, the main assumptions in the Shallow Structure Hypothesis, developed by Clahsen & Felser (2006), are evaluated to determine whether the performance of second language (L2) learners when parsing sentences in the target language is fundamentally different. First, the claim that L2 learners do not employ phrase structure heuristics is assessed with stimuli made up of transitively- and intransitively-biased verbs followed by a noun phrase (Traxler, 2005). The second claim evaluated is that L2 learners do not use structurally defined gaps. This hypothesis is tested by comparing the learners' reading performance of intermediate gaps, stimuli with garden path effects and genitive nominalizations. The third assumption tested involves the use of configurational (binding) principles (Chomsky, 1981) in the parsing of cataphoric reference. The performance of L2 learners of English from Spanish and Chinese backgrounds is compared to that of native English speakers using the moving window paradigm. The relative influence of WM on the processing of these structures was also measured. Results show that both native and non-native speakers present similar parsing profiles and do make use of parsing heuristics. At the same time, both native speakers and L2 learners present difficulties accessing other kinds of structural information and resort instead to other clues that may render 'good-enough' representations (Ferreira et al., 2002). A pervasive finding as regards the WM capacity in L2 learners is the relationship found between the ability to store words and grammatical proficiency in a version of the reading span task (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980)