Lyntax - A grammar-Based Tool for Linguistics

Abstract

This paper is focused on using the formalism of attribute grammars to create a tool that allows Linguistic teachers to construct automatically their own processors totally adapted to each linguistic exercise. The system developed, named Lyntax, is a compiler for a domain specific language which intends to enable the teacher to specify different kinds of sentence structures, and then, ask the student to test his own sentences against those structures. The processor Lyntax validates the grammar (DSL program) written by the teacher, generating a processor every time the student defines a new sentence. For that ANTLR is used in both steps, generating not only the specialized processor but also the visualization of the syntax tree for analysis purposes. An interface that supports the specification of the language was built, also allowing the use of the processor and the generation of the specific grammar, abstracting the user of any calculations