TuanAnhLe_GramEng4Dummies

Grammar Engineering for Dummies

Don't know where to start? Try to start here!

[This page is only a draft]

Installation

Setup development environment can be a tricky tasks. Here are a few useful pages:

• Install Emacs
  For Fedora (Redhat, etc.)

  yum install emacs
  

  For Ubuntu (Debian, Mint, Pinguy, etc.)

  sudo apt-get install emacs
  

• Install Logon (you will have everything you need to develop a grammar). If you use Fedora, read this guide LogonFedora.

• Start Emacs and try to run logon by pressing [ESC] then [x] then type "logon" then hit [ENTER]

• Some useful keyboard shortcut for Emacs/LKB

The Matrix

Yay, I love this series!!! Oops, just kiddin'. The Matrix is a tool for generating a toy grammar so you can play with it quickly.

http://www.delph-in.net/matrix/customize/matrix.cgi

Make use of your grammars

If you want to use your grammar in production, you should use ACE. See this page for everything about ACE. Basically what you want is to download a copy of ACE from here, and then see this page to know how to use it. A version of ACE (may be older) is included with logon under the name answer and can be found at ~/logon/bin/answer.

Compile your grammar with ACE

For example, you want to compile my grammar VIRGO, and you have it in the workspace folder under your home folder (~/workspace/virgo) you can try:

cd ~/workspace/virgo
ace -g ace/config.tdl -G virgo.dat

NOTE: change virgo.dat to any name you want. Make sure you have a lowercase g for the first argument and uppercase G for the second argument. They are NOT interchangable.

To parse a sentence, use this:

echo "chim bay." | ace -g virgo.dat -1Tf

Write HPSG papers with LaTeX

Start ace with LUI mode:

ace -g erg.dat -l

Click on any tree to open a bigger tree view and then press l (L) button. The tree LaTeX code will be written into /tmp/ folder. This method works for MRS diagrams as well. LUI mode can be used to debug grammars as well. For example after LUI is started, :l bay can be used to display lexical information of the intransitive verb "bay". More information can be found in the page AceLui