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RE: CE Starter grammar
Graham,
I have two concerns
1. It is often not possible to determine the purpose of an utterance from
its surface structure, and in isolation. I think it will be important to
keep the distinctions among syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
2. "process" is likewise an ontological issue rather than a syntactic one.
I think these labels are fine so long as we acknowledge that they could
only be added either explicitly by the source of the utterance, or at a
stage of processing following syntactic parsing.
Adam
At 04:04 PM 6/1/2001 +1000, Horn, Graham wrote:
>Folks,
> . May I suggest each line of a diagrammatic figure be started
>with a dot, so as to minimise format obliteration by e-mail & firewall
>systems. I also suggest Courier font for them, to utilise the constant
>character width of that font. Please note the number of leading dots in the
>hierarchical indented structures below, in case the indenting is stripped
>out .
>
> . I also feel we will need a symbology that indicates
>optionality of elements and structures.
>
> . I had a go at some simple augmentations to this, but there
>are many aspects, of course, to consider. I feel we will rapidly need to
>expand the paradigm.
>
> . May I suggest we classify sentences , such as:
>* purpose:
>* . statement
>* . query
>* . command
>* complexity:
>* . simple - only one independent clause
>* . compound - more than one independent clauses only
>* . complex -also has one or more dependant clauses
>
> . I also suggest we break them down into subject, process, and
>possibly indirect object and/or direct object.
>
> . Doubtless I sound like an old school master, but I strongly
>suspect we will rapidly require most of the basic traditional grammar
>elements. Hence I suggest the following enlarged and hierarchical list:
>
>* LP = label phrase, of type:
>* U = subject,
>* I = indirect object, and
>* B = direct object; comprising:
>* . L = label
>* .. N = noun
>* .. PN = proper noun
>* .. R = pronoun
>o ... QR = query pronoun [who|what|which]
>o ... (there are other types of pronoun)
>* .. Q = qualifier
>o ... J = adjective
>- .... DJ = determining adjective [the|a|an|all|every]
>o .. JP = adjectival phrase (E + NP, eg: "with the tag")
>o ... JC = adjectival clause (form of simple sentence, but not
>semantically complete, and introduced by a subordinating conjunction, eg:
>"which he wore")
>* P = process
>* . PP = process phrase
>* .. V = verb (finite)
>* .. AV = auxiliary verb [
>* .. PV = participle verb [
>* .. M = modifier
>o ... A = adverb
>o ... QA = query adverb [how|what|where]
>o ... AP = adverbial phrase (E + NP, eg: "along the wide road")
>o ... AC = adjectival clause (form of simple sentence, but not
>semantically complete, and introduced by a subordinating conjunction, eg:
>"when they arrived")
>* E = preposition [like|as|...|etc.]
>* C = coordinating conjunction [and|but|or|...|etc.]
>* S = subordinating conjunction [which|how|what|...|etc.]
>
> . I'm afraid I can't see any way of avoiding this level of
>complexity. Fortunately the paradigm is well proven over thousands of years.
>
>
> . For our purposes, we get a large task very early on, but we
>can take it incrementally by analysing and specifying each type of sentence,
>starting form the simplest, one at a time.
>
> . I am using square brackets to indicate optionality below. I
>have also not required optionality to be indicated below the level at which
>it occurs.
>
> . By the way, I am not wedded to the above symbols - they were
>just drawn off the top of my head. We will probably have to assign roles to
>various characters, so as to make the meaning unambiguous.
>
> . Now let's have a go at the simplest generic structure.
>. simple statement
>. / | \ \
>. U P [I] [B]
>. / | \/
>. LP PP LP
>. / \ / \ / \
>. [Q] L P M [Q] L
>
> . Suggestions, comments, corrections, criticisms welcome.
>
>
>
>Cheers Graham Horn
>National Data Standards Unit
>Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
>================================================
>Phone: +61.2.6244.1094
>Fax: +61.2.6244.1199
>Email: Graham.Horn@aihw.gov.au <mailto:graham.horn@aihw.gov.au>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Adam Pease [mailto:apease@ks.teknowledge.com]
>Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 12:15 PM
>To: suo-ce@ieee.org
>Subject: CE Starter grammar
>
>
>Folks,
>I'll suggest the following strawman as a start on a restricted English
>grammar.
> sentence
> / \
> SNP|Q VP
> / \ / \
> Det N|PN V NP|SNP
> / | \
> Det M N|PN
>
>where:
>SNP = simple noun phrase
>NP = noun phrase
>Det = determiner [the|a|an|all|every]
>N = noun
>V = verb
>VP = verb phrase
>PN = proper noun
>M = modifier
>Q = query word [who|what|where]
>
>
>Adam
Adam Pease
Teknowledge
(650) 424-0500 x571