My Computational Linguistics dissertation (A.O.T.I. K.U. Leuven)

Table of contents

1. Bibligraphical information
2. Abstract
3. Grammar coverage
4. On line access
5. Source code files

Bibliographical information

• Text version of reference
  Frederik Fouvry, Een head-driven phrase structure grammar voor het Nederlands in the Attribute Logic Engine, master's thesis, Faculteit Wetenschappen, K.U. Leuven, Juni 1995.
• Bibtex version of reference

Abstract

The dissertation describes a partial Dutch grammar, written in the formalism of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).

As an introduction, there is an overview of NLP in Prolog, with special attention for programmes based on attribute logic.

The second chapter contains an abstract of the grammatical theory on which the Attribute Logic Engine (ALE) is based, viz. HPSG. It treats the types and the attributes that HPSG uses to build its data type, the feature structure, the constraints that a feature structure must comply with, the rules of the grammar and the lexicon.

In the third chapter, we take the other part that is important for the resulting grammar: ALE. We describe the notation - in order to be able to read the grammar -, and the internal treatment of the typed attribute logic. For Prolog itself has no (or hardly any) types.

At last the grammar is described. Because HPSG has a more or less fixed treatment for several phenomena, there is no need to mention those all again. We concentrated on the deviant points.

In an appendix, we give the grammar together with a test suite (a Dutch one, so no TSNLP test suite), to show what are the possibilities, and especially the restrictions of the grammar.

Coverage of the grammar

My implementation treats the following phenomena successfully, albeit with some limitations. There are overlaps in the list, due to the way in which it was made up.

• all forms of subcategorisation in verbs:
  • impersonal verbs
  • intransitive verbs
  • transitive verbs
  • ditransitive verbs
  • prepositional objects
  • complex subategorisation
    • complementiser ``dat''
    • infinitive (not the infinitive of a modal verb to ``replace'' a past participle)
    • participles
  Verbs with a sentence as subject are not present in the lexicon, but the grammar allows them.
• prepositions with nouns and as prepositional object
• article and noun
• article, adjective and noun
• subordinate clauses
  • participle (for passive and perfect tenses)
  • indicative
    • complement clauses (``dat ...'')
    • relative clauses (``dat''/``die'')
    • subordinate interrogative clauses (with ``wie''/``wat'')
  • infinitive
    • ``te'' with infinitive
    • pure infinitive
    • ``om te'' with infinitive
• main clauses
  • indicative
    • questions (not reflected in semantics)
      • yes/no-questions
      • WH-questions (``wie''/``wat'')
    • affirmative questions
• passive (without check on auxiliary). Impersonal passive (``er'').
• copula and adjective
• personal pronouns (but no binding or anaphoric resolution)

On line access

Here you can try out the grammar yourself on line. The English grammar is not available. For the interpretation of the results: see ALE and HPSG.

How to get the grammar

Not ready yet. Well, you can get the grammar, but it is all a bit shaky.

To run the grammar, you need the ALE code: see the ALE Home Page.

Note: That enormous abbreviation in the header stands for: ``Aanvullende Opleiding Toegepaste Informatica, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven''. Where did you leave that Dutch dictionary?