Using Two-Level Grammars to Describe the Syntax of English.

Two-level grammars (2LGs) have traditionally been used to define the syntax and semantics of programming languages. However, this paper will show that 2LGs can also be used to describe the syntax of English sentences, as well as to perform context checks to ensure that an English sentence is grammatical. Briefly stated, the metarules of a 2 LG may be used to generate an English sentence, much in the same way as a context-free grammar might. Once the sentence is generated, the hyperrules of the 2LG may be used to verify that the sentence exhibits subject/verb agreement, subject/object agreement (if required), and other important context checks. 2LGs have significant advantages over other methods used to describe and analyze English sentences. Generally, each researcher in the area of natural language processing invents his or her own notation for describing English syntax. 2LGs, conversely, are formally defined and are therefore standardized to a large extent. Because each researcher develops a unique notation, these notations can be unintelligible at first glance. 2LGs, though somewhat verbose, have predicates that can be written in a very descriptive, self-documenting style.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Year

1984

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, Robert Dale

• Programming languages
• English sentence
• Two-level grammars
• Semantics

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/6960

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.library.uab.edu:etd-collection-7952