Development methods and tools
This is a loose overview of the methods applied in ParGram:
- It's a basic principle to apply analyses that are
linguistically motivated. This ensures that results can be re-used
elsewhere under the same principle. Moreover, linguistic research can
be built on, and the training period for linguists involved will be
kept short.
- However, the choice of linguistic constructions to be included
in the grammar is not controlled by linguistic interest, but rather by
frequency in text corpora.
- Special focus is put on phenomena causing efficiency problems
due to complex interaction. Here, pragmatic solutions have to be
envisaged in certain cases.
- Using systematic test procedures is of central importance.
Changes in certain parts of an analysis have to be checked
step-by-step to make sure that the intended effect is reached, and no
negative side effects occur.
Interaction problems can only be detected and resolved if extensive
test suites with carefully chosen examples are used.
- In the first phase of the ParGram project, the LFG Grammar
Writer's Workbench (in Medley) was used as a development
platform. Now, the Xerox
Linguistic Environmenth (XLE) is applied. This system is
compatible with the Medley system, however it builds on top of Unix
and Tcl.
- The facilities that XLE provides include a sophisticated
inspection tool for the output structures (packed representations of
ambiguity), statistical information on parsing times etc.; basic test
tools are available, refinements are being worked on.
Progress up to
now