- Library Home /
- Search Collections /
- Open Collections /
- Browse Collections /
- UBC Theses and Dissertations /
- A prolog implementation of a subset of Marcus’ parser...
Open Collections
UBC Theses and Dissertations
UBC Theses and Dissertations
A prolog implementation of a subset of Marcus’ parser and its relation to the handling of extragrammatical input Dorotich, Michael Scarlett
Abstract
In any system employing a natural language interface, there is the problem that, by means of a formal grammar, the system itself defines the language it will accept. But, when using language, people will not always adhere to the rules of this grammar; therefore, a natural language computer system should not simply treat as incomprehensible any input not conforming to its internal grammar, input we may call extragrammatical. The term extragrammatical refers to input that is not necessarily incorrect in an absolute sense but only relative to the formal scope of a system's grammar. Before a truly robust system can be developed, what is needed is a parsing mechanism that enforces grammaticality where possible, and this implies a deterministic approach to natural language parsing. This thesis discusses the importance of flexible natural language interfaces; the notion of extragrammatical language and its connexion to robust parsing; a deterministic parser, PARSIFAL, developed by Mitchell Marcus; and a reimplementation, using logic programming, of a subset of Marcus' system. Programming was done with CProlog on a VAX 11/750* running 4.2 BSD UNIX.
Item Metadata
Title |
A prolog implementation of a subset of Marcus’ parser and its relation to the handling of extragrammatical input
|
Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
Date Issued |
1986
|
Description |
In any system employing a natural language interface, there is the problem that, by means of a formal grammar, the system itself defines the language it will accept. But, when using language, people will not always adhere to the rules of this grammar; therefore, a natural language computer system should not simply treat as incomprehensible any input not conforming to its internal grammar, input we may call extragrammatical. The term extragrammatical refers to input that is not necessarily incorrect in an absolute sense but only relative to the formal scope of a system's grammar. Before a truly robust system can be developed, what is needed is a parsing mechanism that enforces grammaticality where possible, and this implies a deterministic approach to natural language parsing. This thesis discusses the importance of flexible natural language interfaces; the notion of extragrammatical language and its connexion to robust parsing; a deterministic parser, PARSIFAL, developed by Mitchell Marcus; and a reimplementation, using logic programming, of a subset of Marcus' system. Programming was done with CProlog on a VAX 11/750* running 4.2 BSD UNIX.
|
Genre | |
Type | |
Language |
eng
|
Date Available |
2010-06-20
|
Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
|
Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
|
DOI |
10.14288/1.0051885
|
URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
|
Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
|
Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.