--1 Abstract Syntax for Multilingual Resource Grammar -- -- Aarne Ranta 2002 -- 2003 -- -- Although concrete syntax differs a lot between different languages, -- many structures can be found that are common, on a certain level -- of abstraction. What we will present in the following is an abstract -- syntax that has been successfully defined for English, Finnish, French, German, -- Italian, Russian, and Swedish. It has been applied to define language -- fragments on technical or near-to-technical domains: database queries, -- video recorder dialogue systems, software specifications, and a -- health-related phrase book. Each new application helped to identify some -- missing structures in the resource and suggested some additions, but the -- number of them was usually small. -- -- To use the resource in applications, you need the following -- $cat$ and $fun$ rules in $oper$ form, completed by taking the -- $lincat$ and $lin$ judgements of a particular language. This is done -- by using the $reuse$ module with the desired concrete syntax of -- $ResAbs$ as argument. --2 Categories -- -- The categories of this resource grammar are mostly 'standard' categories -- of linguistics. Their is no claim that they correspond to semantic categories -- definable in type theory: to define such correspondences is the business -- of applications grammars. -- -- Categories that may look special are $Adj2$, $Fun$, and $TV$. They are all -- instances of endowing another category with a complement, which can be either -- a direct object (whose case may vary) or a prepositional phrase. This, together -- with the category $Adv$, removes the need of a category of -- 'prepositional phrases', which is too language-dependent to make sense -- on this level of abstraction. -- abstract ResAbs = { --3 Nouns and noun phrases -- cat N ; -- simple common noun, e.g. "car" CN ; -- common noun phrase, e.g. "red car", "car that John owns" NP ; -- noun phrase, e.g. "John", "all cars", "you" PN ; -- proper name, e.g. "John", "New York" Det ; -- determiner, e.g. "every", "all" Fun ; -- function word, e.g. "mother (of)" Fun2 ; -- two-place function, e.g. "flight (from) (to)" --3 Adjectives and adjectival phrases -- Adj1 ; -- one-place adjective, e.g. "even" Adj2 ; -- two-place adjective, e.g. "divisible (by)" AdjDeg ; -- degree adjective, e.g. "big/bigger/biggest" AP ; -- adjective phrase, e.g. "divisible by two", "bigger than John" --3 Verbs and verb phrases -- V ; -- one-place verb, e.g. "walk" TV ; -- two-place verb, e.g. "love", "wait (for)", "switch on" V3 ; -- three-place verb, e.g. "give", "prefer (stg) (to stg)" VS ; -- sentence-compl. verb, e.g. "say", "prove" VP ; -- verb phrase, e.g. "switch the light on" --3 Adverbials -- AdV ; -- adverbial e.g. "now", "in the house" AdA ; -- ad-adjective e.g. "very" AdS ; -- sentence adverbial e.g. "therefore", "otherwise" --3 Sentences and relative clauses -- S ; -- sentence, e.g. "John walks" Slash ; -- sentence without NP, e.g. "John waits for (...)" RP ; -- relative pronoun, e.g. "which", "the mother of whom" RC ; -- relative clause, e.g. "who walks", "that I wait for" --3 Questions and imperatives -- IP ; -- interrogative pronoun, e.g. "who", "whose mother", "which yellow car" IAdv ; -- interrogative adverb., e.g. "when", "why" Qu ; -- question, e.g. "who walks" Imp ; -- imperative, e.g. "walk!" --3 Coordination and subordination -- Conj ; -- conjunction, e.g. "and" ConjD ; -- distributed conj. e.g. "both - and" Subj ; -- subjunction, e.g. "if", "when" ListS ; -- list of sentences ListAP ; -- list of adjectival phrases ListNP ; -- list of noun phrases --3 Complete utterances -- Phr ; -- full phrase, e.g. "John walks.","Who walks?", "Wait for me!" Text ; -- sequence of phrases e.g. "One is odd. Therefore, two is even." --2 Rules -- -- This set of rules is minimal, in the sense of defining the simplest combinations -- of categories and not having redundant rules. -- When the resource grammar is used as a library, it will often be useful to -- access it through an intermediate library that defines more rules as -- 'macros' for combinations of the ones below. --3 Nouns and noun phrases -- fun UseN : N -> CN ; -- "car" ModAdj : AP -> CN -> CN ; -- "red car" DetNP : Det -> CN -> NP ; -- "every car" IndefOneNP, IndefManyNP : CN -> NP ; -- "a car", "cars" DefOneNP, DefManyNP : CN -> NP ; -- "the car", "the cars" ModGenOne, ModGenMany : NP -> CN -> NP ; -- "John's car", "John's cars" UsePN : PN -> NP ; -- "John" UseFun : Fun -> CN ; -- "successor" AppFun : Fun -> NP -> CN ; -- "successor of zero" AppFun2 : Fun2 -> NP -> Fun ; -- "flight from Paris" CNthatS : CN -> S -> CN ; -- "idea that the Earth is flat" --3 Adjectives and adjectival phrases -- AdjP1 : Adj1 -> AP ; -- "red" ComplAdj : Adj2 -> NP -> AP ; -- "divisible by two" PositAdjP : AdjDeg -> AP ; -- "old" ComparAdjP : AdjDeg -> NP -> AP ; -- "older than John" SuperlNP : AdjDeg -> CN -> NP ; -- "the oldest man" --3 Verbs and verb phrases -- PosV, NegV : V -> VP ; -- "walk", "doesn't walk" PosA, NegA : AP -> VP ; -- "is old", "isn't old" PosCN, NegCN : CN -> VP ; -- "is a man", "isn't a man" PosTV, NegTV : TV -> NP -> VP ; -- "sees John", "doesn't see John" PosPassV, NegPassV : V -> VP ; -- "is seen", "is not seen" PosNP, NegNP : NP -> VP ; -- "is John", "is not John" PosVS, NegVS : VS -> S -> VP ; -- "says that I run", "doesn't say..." PosV3, NegV3 : V3 -> NP -> NP -> VP ; -- "prefers wine to beer" VTrans : TV -> V ; -- "loves" --3 Adverbials -- AdvVP : VP -> AdV -> VP ; -- "always walks", "walks in the park" LocNP : NP -> AdV ; -- "in London" AdvCN : CN -> AdV -> CN ; -- "house in London", "house today" AdvAP : AdA -> AP -> AP ; -- "very good" --3 Sentences and relative clauses -- PredVP : NP -> VP -> S ; -- "John walks" PosSlashTV, NegSlashTV : NP -> TV -> Slash ; -- "John sees", "John doesn's see" OneVP : VP -> S ; -- "one walks" IdRP : RP ; -- "which" FunRP : Fun -> RP -> RP ; -- "the successor of which" RelVP : RP -> VP -> RC ; -- "who walks" RelSlash : RP -> Slash -> RC ; -- "that I wait for"/"for which I wait" ModRC : CN -> RC -> CN ; -- "man who walks" RelSuch : S -> RC ; -- "such that it is even" --3 Questions and imperatives -- WhoOne, WhoMany : IP ; -- "who (is)", "who (are)" WhatOne, WhatMany : IP ; -- "what (is)", "what (are)" FunIP : Fun -> IP -> IP ; -- "the mother of whom" NounIPOne, NounIPMany : CN -> IP ; -- "which car", "which cars" QuestVP : NP -> VP -> Qu ; -- "does John walk" IntVP : IP -> VP -> Qu ; -- "who walks" IntSlash : IP -> Slash -> Qu ; -- "whom does John see" QuestAdv : IAdv -> NP -> VP -> Qu ; -- "why do you walk" ImperVP : VP -> Imp ; -- "be a man" IndicPhrase : S -> Phr ; -- "I walk." QuestPhrase : Qu -> Phr ; -- "Do I walk?" ImperOne, ImperMany : Imp -> Phr ; -- "Be a man!", "Be men!" AdvS : AdS -> S -> Phr ; -- "Therefore, 2 is prime." --3 Coordination -- -- We consider "n"-ary coordination, with "n" > 1. To this end, we have introduced -- a *list category* $ListX$ for each category $X$ whose expressions we want to -- conjoin. Each list category has two constructors, the base case being $TwoX$. -- We have not defined coordination of all possible categories here, -- since it can be tricky in many languages. For instance, $VP$ coordination -- is linguistically problematic in German because $VP$ is a discontinuous -- category. ConjS : Conj -> ListS -> S ; -- "John walks and Mary runs" ConjAP : Conj -> ListAP -> AP ; -- "even and prime" ConjNP : Conj -> ListNP -> NP ; -- "John or Mary" ConjDS : ConjD -> ListS -> S ; -- "either John walks or Mary runs" ConjDAP : ConjD -> ListAP -> AP ; -- "both even and prime" ConjDNP : ConjD -> ListNP -> NP ; -- "either John or Mary" TwoS : S -> S -> ListS ; ConsS : ListS -> S -> ListS ; TwoAP : AP -> AP -> ListAP ; ConsAP : ListAP -> AP -> ListAP ; TwoNP : NP -> NP -> ListNP ; ConsNP : ListNP -> NP -> ListNP ; --3 Subordination -- -- Subjunctions are different from conjunctions, but form -- a uniform category among themselves. SubjS : Subj -> S -> S -> S ; -- "if 2 is odd, 3 is even" SubjImper : Subj -> S -> Imp -> Imp ; -- "if it is hot, use a glove!" SubjQu : Subj -> S -> Qu -> Qu ; -- "if you are new, who are you?" SubjVP : VP -> Subj -> S -> VP ; -- "(a man who) sings when he runs" --2 One-word utterances -- -- These are, more generally, *one-phrase utterances*. The list below -- is very incomplete. PhrNP : NP -> Phr ; -- "Some man.", "John." PhrOneCN, PhrManyCN : CN -> Phr ; -- "A car.", "Cars." PhrIP : IAdv -> Phr ; -- "Who?" PhrIAdv : IAdv -> Phr ; -- "Why?" --2 Text formation -- -- A text is a sequence of phrases. It is defined like a non-empty list. OnePhr : Phr -> Text ; ConsPhr : Phr -> Text -> Text ; --2 Examples of structural words -- -- Here we have some words belonging to closed classes and appearing -- in all languages we have considered. -- Sometimes they are not really meaningful, e.g. $TheyNP$ in French -- should really be replaced by masculine and feminine variants. EveryDet, AllDet, WhichDet, MostDet : Det ; -- every, all, which, most INP, ThouNP, HeNP, SheNP, ItNP : NP ; -- personal pronouns in singular WeNP, YeNP, TheyNP : NP ; -- personal pronouns in plural YouNP : NP ; -- the polite you WhenIAdv,WhereIAdv,WhyIAdv,HowIAdv : IAdv ; -- when, where, why, how AndConj, OrConj : Conj ; -- and, or BothAnd, EitherOr, NeitherNor : ConjD ; -- both-and, either-or, neither-nor IfSubj, WhenSubj : Subj ; -- if, when PhrYes, PhrNo : Phr ; -- yes, no VeryAdv, TooAdv : AdA ; -- very, too OtherwiseAdv, ThereforeAdv : AdS ; -- therefore, otherwise } ;