heins@orion.UUCP (Michael Heins) (10/26/86)
[] I am looking for public domain software which I can use to help me parse simple English sentences into some kind of standardized representation. I guess what I am looking for would be a kind of sentence diagrammer which would not have to have any deep knowledge of the meanings of the nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. The application is for a command interface to a computer, for use by novice users. C routines would be ideal. Also, references to published algorithms would be useful. Thanks in advance. -- ...!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!orion!heins We are a way for the universe to know itself. -- Carl Sagan
michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (Michael Maxwell) (10/31/86)
In article <30@orion.UUCP> heins@orion.UUCP (Michael Heins) writes: >I am looking for public domain software which I can use to help me parse >simple English sentences into some kind of standardized representation. >I guess what I am looking for would be a kind of sentence diagrammer >which would not have to have any deep knowledge of the meanings of the >nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. > >...C routines would be ideal. Also, references to published >algorithms would be useful. Since this seems to be a fairly common request, I am taking the liberty of posting to the net... Many Prologs (but not Turbo) have a built-in parser called `Definite Clause Grammar' (DCG). It is a way of writing phrase structure rules, which Prolog then translates into standard Prolog rules. Most standard texts on Prolog discuss it, e.g. %A W.F. Clocksin %A C.S. Mellish %D 1984 %T Programming in Prolog %I Springer-Verlag %C Berlin A somewhat more sophisticated rule system was developed by Fernando Pereira in his Ph.D. dissertation, published with some revision as: %A Fernando Pereira %D 1979 %T Extraposition Grammars %R Working Paper No. 59 %I Department of Aritficial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh %C Edinburgh (You'd have to type the program in yourself; he includes a very simple grammar of English.) -- Mike Maxwell Boeing Advanced Technology Center ...uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!michaelm