English Algorithmic Grammar

265 Pages·2009·9.52 MB·English

by  Hristo Georgiev

English Algorithmic Grammar
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English Algorithmic Grammar
Hristo Georgiev
continuum
Continuum
The Tower Building 15 East 26th Street
11 York Road New York
London SE1 7NX NY 10010
© Hristo Georgiev 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in
writing from the publishers.
First published 2006
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 0-8264-8777-7 (hardback)
Typeset by BookEns Ltd, Royston, Herts.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
Preface
Part One
1 Algorithmic recognition of the Verb 3
1 Introduction 3
2 Basic assumptions and some facts 4
3 Algorithm for automatic recognition of verbal and nominal
word groups. Algorithm No 1 5
4 Conclusion 12
2 Division of the sentence into phrases 13
1 Introduction 13
2 Presentation 13
3 Algorithm for division of the sentence into phrases.
Algorithm No 2 14
4 Discussion 16
3 Algorithmic recognition of Parts of Speech 18
} Introduction 18
2 Presentation 19
3 Algorithm for recognition of Parts of Speech. Algorithm No 3 21
4 Discussion 22
5 Examples of the performance of the algorithm 23
6 Lists of words used by Algorithm No 3 25
7 Algorithmic procedure to determine the use of Adjectives,
Nouns, Participles, Numerals and Adverbs as attributes to
the Noun 27
4 Algorithmic recognition of the Tenses 34
1 Presentation 34
2 Presentation of the algorithm. Algorithm No 6 35
3 Discussion 37
vi CONTENTS
Part Two
5 Syntactical structure of the sentence 41
1 Introduction 41
2 Syntactic Structures 42
3 The segment 44
4 Presentation of the segment 47
6 Composition of the segments 49
1 Introduction 49
2 Examples of manual extraction of segments from a text 50
3 Types of segments 51
7 Parsing algorithm 17 7
1 Identification of the segment 177
2 Parsing of the segment 184
8 Links of predicates and incomplete segments 197
1 Links of PI 197
2 Links of Pi 199
3 Links of the j-segment 202
4 Links of the G-segment 203
5 Links of the v-segment 204
6 Links of the and-segment 205
7 Links of the Infinitive 205
8 Other links and discussion of the links 206
9 Reference 208
1 Reference within the segment 208
2 Pronominal Reference 209
10 Recognition of the Independent and Dependent Clauses 220
1 Algorithm No 20 220
2 Role and meaning of Conjunctions 223
3 The sentence 225
4 Creation of Interrogative Sentences 229
11 Further applications 231
Appendix 1: List of Prepositions and Conjunctions and their
most characteristic meaning 237
Appendix 2: Internet downloads 241
General index of abbreviations 243
References 250
Index 252
Preface
The main purpose of this book is to bridge the gap between traditional and
computational grammar, showing how traditional grammar can be turned
into computational without losing readers. There have been no previous
attempts made in this direction, since all computational linguists have used
Artificial Languages for their algorithmic notation. By doing so they have
excluded those readers who are unfamiliar with formal languages and
computers and how they operate, but are eager to learn. Some of those
readers are English language students and teachers.
A computational grammar can be read and understood by humans and by
computers only if it is written in a language they can both comprehend. For
the humans, this is the Natural Language (in our case, English); for the
computers, this is the rigid and unequivocal algorithmic language. When the
algorithmic language is expressed in Natural Language, say English, it can be
made legible for humans and at the same time it can be easily turned into a
computer software program using one of the artificial languages to program
it.
So, in this book we will provide a formal description of English grammar
(syntax) for the computer, in two parts. In Part 1 we will introduce
procedures for automatic recognition (disambiguation) of the Parts of Speech
in a text. Part 2 will deal with the sentence and the interrelationships of its
constituent elements, including Parsing and Pronominal Reference.
The algorithmic approach to grammar is a step by step approach, in line
with the digital thinking of the computer. Such an approach leaves nothing
unresolved, since the computer cannot take a step further without having first
solved the task presented at the previous step. The algorithmic approach
leaves no room for errors. Errors accumulate if not corrected in time and
frustrate the operation of the whole system. The functioning of the algorithm,
and hence the performance of the computer software program, is entirely
dependent on the formal method of description of the language. If this
method is inadequate, if it cannot describe every word and every sentence,
then this method is useless to the computer. The algorithmic approach, unlike
other methods, can be verified. We can check each step of the algorithm
manually and be personally convinced whether the decision taken by the
computer at this step is true or false.
viii PREFACE
English grammar, as seen through the digital eyes of the computer, looks
like an endless chain of operations (instructions) and decisions aimed at
resolving a particular grammatical or semantic task.
The present grammar is designed for text analysis, not for text synthesis,
though, after some additions and exclusions, it can be used for the latter
purpose if one is willing to generate syntactically correct but meaningless
sentences on a computer. In the classroom, for teaching purposes, the students
may use it to generate meaningful sentences by adding words to the list of
syntactical structures. English Algorithmic Grammar has a very wide scope of
application. It can be used to study, teach and exercise English grammar
(syntax) at all levels. It could serve to introduce the linguist at under-
graduate, postgraduate or faculty level to computers and to the computer
way of thinking and decision-making, and the computer scientist or hobbyist
to linguistics. Many Natural Language Processing teams in the world may
find its algorithms preferable for implementation. English Algorithmic Grammar
is both a textbook and a reference book. It is accompanied by a Dictionary of
Segments, available for free download on the Internet (see Internet
Downloads at the end of the book), containing some 27,000 syntactically
correct structures permitted by English grammar. The structures are pre-
parsed and can be used for reference by English speakers and non-English
speakers alike. The reader needs no special knowledge of the related fields
(mathematics and computational linguistics) in order to be able to
understand this book.
PART ONE