Construction: a repository of idiomatic constructions involving special lexical items. Started with some Phrasebook ones and implemented for Eng,Fin,Fre,Swe

lib/src/abstract/Construction.gf

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+abstract Construction = Cat ** {
+
+-- started by AR 6/12/2013. (c) Aarne Ranta under LGPL and BSD
+
+-- This module is, in the spirit of construction grammar, "between syntax and lexicon". 
+-- So is the module Idiom, but the difference is that the constructions in Idiom 
+-- apply to categories in a general way (e.g. existentials) whereas here they
+-- are typically about particular predicates such as "NP is hungry" which are found
+-- to work differently in different languages. The purpose of this module is hence
+-- not so much to widen the scope of string recognition, but to provide trees that
+-- are abstract enough to yield correct translations.
+
+
+-- The first examples are from the MOLTO Phrasebook
+
+fun
+  hungry_VP     : VP ;                 -- x is hungry / x a faim (Fre)
+  thirsty_VP    : VP ;                 -- x is thirsty / x a soif (Fre)
+  has_age_VP    : Card -> VP ;         -- x is y years old / x a y ans (Fre)
+
+  have_name_Cl  : NP -> NP -> Cl ;     -- x's name is y / x s'appelle y (Fre)
+  married_Cl    : NP -> NP -> Cl ;     -- x is married to y / x on naimisissa y:n kanssa (Fin)
+
+  what_name_QCl : NP -> QCl ;          -- what is x's name / wie heisst x (Ger)
+  how_old_QCl   : NP -> QCl ;          -- how old is x / quanti anni ha x (Ita)
+  how_far_QCl   : NP -> QCl ;          -- how far is x / quanto dista x (Ita)
+
+-- some more things
+
+  weather_adjCl : AP -> Cl ;           -- it is warm / il fait chaud (Fre)
+
+  is_right_VP   : VP ;                 -- he is right / il a raison (Fre) 
+  is_wrong_VP   : VP ;                 -- he is wrong / han har fel (Swe)
+
+  n_units_AP    : Card -> CN -> A -> AP ;  -- x inches long
+
+}