Difference between revisions of "Apertium-recursive/Formalism"

Revision as of 17:42, 13 June 2019

A proposal for a recursive transfer rule formalism.

When there are multiple rules of the same length which all match, the one with the highest weight is applied. If there is a tie, the one that appears first in the rules file is applied. Due to the way the patterns are compiled, if two rules have identical patterns, the first one will always be applied, regardless of weight. If the weight is omitted, it will default to 0. User-defined weights cannot be negative.

Attribute Lists

A list of attributes can be defined like this:

gender = m f GD ;
number = sg pl ND ;

An attribute list can also specify undefined and default values:

gender = (GD m) m f GD;

This defines the gender category as before, but with the addition that if any rule tries to read the gender of a node that doesn't have a gender tag, the result will be <GD> rather than the empty string. It also creates a rule which will run last (the weight is -1.0) that will replace <GD> with <m>.

Tag Order

The order of tags for each type of node must be defined like this:

n: _.gender.number;
adj: _.gender;
NP: _.number;

Where _ represents the lemma and the part of speech tag. Currently these patterns can only be defined based on a single part of speech tag, though it may eventually be possible to match based on multiple tags or to specify a different pattern for particular nodes.

To specify a literal tag in a pattern, put it in angle brackets:

det: _.<def>.number;

At present, chunk tags must also be listed in the rules like so:

NP.number -> n adj {2 _1 1};

But this redundancy will hopefully be removed soon.

Patterns

An element of a pattern must match a single, literal part of speech tag. In order to match multiple part of speech tags, create a separate rule which matches each of them:

NOM -> n {1} | np {1};

To match a lemma or pseudolemma, place it before the part of speech tag, separated by @:

NP -> the@det n {2 _1 1};

It is also possible to match a category of lemmas:

days = sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday;
date -> $days@n the@det num.ord {2 _2 3 _1 1};

Tags besides part of speech can be matched as shown above.

Pattern elements can also specify values for the tags of the chunk being output by the rule.

number = (ND sg) sg pl sp ND;
NP.number -> n.$number adj {1};

This rule specifies that the number tag of the NP chunk should be copied from the noun. It will use the target language side if that is available. If not, it will proceed to the reference side, and then the source side. If all three of these are empty, it will use the default value <ND>. To require that a particular variable be taken from a particular side, put the side after a slash:

NP.number -> det.$number/ref n {1 _1 2};

/sl refers to the source language, /tl to the target language, and /ref to anything added by anaphora resolution.

If a pattern element is contributing several tags to the chunk, the following shortcut is available:

NP.number.gender -> %n adj {2 _1 1};

The % indicates the noun is the source of all chunk tags not elsewhere specified.

To specify a literal value for a chunk tag, put it in square brackets after the pattern like this:

NP.gender.number -> 0: NP cnjcoo NP [$gender=m, $number=pl] {1 _1 2 _2 3} |
                    1: NP.f cnjcoo NP.f [$gender=f, $number=pl] {1 _1 2 _2 3} |
                    2: NP.*.sg or@cnjcoo NP.*.sg [$gender=m, $number=sg] {1 _1 2 _2 3} |
                    3: NP.f.sg or@cnjcoo NP.f.sg [$gender=f, $number=sg] {1 _1 2 _2 3} ;

That is, treat the gender of the phrase as masculine unless both elements are feminine and the number as singular unless the conjunction is "or" and both elements are singular.

The pattern only looks at the source language, but it is possible to add constraints:

conj_list = and or;
NP.gender.number -> %NP cnjcoo NP ((2.lem/tl in conj_list) and ~(3.gender = 1.gender)) {1 _1 2 _2 3};

This will only match the pattern if it is also the case that the target language lemma of the conjunction is "and" or "or" and the two NPs have different genders. The outermost parentheses are required and order of operations is not guaranteed to make any sense, so please put parentheses around everything.

Blanks

Blanks between lexical units are handled analogously to the chunking system. A _ in the output inserts a blank and _n inserts the blank originally after node n. If two nodes do not have a blank between them, they will be output as conjoined.

If an input needs to distinguish between conjoined and non-conjoined lexical units, that can be done with + and _. Ordinarily, the parser will ignore the difference.

@n @v   ! matches "^a<n>$ ^b<v>$" or "^a<n>+b<v>$"
@n _ @v ! matches only "^a<n>$ ^b<v>$"
@n + @v ! matches only "^a<n>+b<v>$"

On an input like "^a<n>+b<v>$", _1 should probably be equivalent to _, but I'm not completely certain of this.

Variables

A node can have variables attached to it. Lexical units have variables corresponding to any attribute categories that match their tags.

NP.number.case.gender -> @adj.$number @n.$number.$gender {2(case=$case) 1(case=$case)} ;

This rule specifies that NP has 3 variables associated with it. The NP will initially have a value for $number which will be the number marking of the adjective and noun (which must match) and for $gender, which will be the gender tag of the noun. $case will initially be empty. If the value of $case is set by some other rule further up the tree, then the case tag will be set on both lexical units in the output phase, otherwise they will keep their default marking.

Values can also be transferred between nodes in the output phase:

VP -> NP @v {2(number=1.number, gender=1.gender) _1 1(case=nom)} ;

This makes the verb agree with the subject in number and gender and sets the subject's case to <nom>.

The 3 possible assignments are "attr=literal", "attr=index.attr", and "attr=$var".

Similar patterns can be used if the output is a literal lexical unit with agreement:

el@det.def.[1.gender].sg
el@det.def.$gender.sg

If a rule needs to specify which side of the translation a value comes from, that can be done like so:

1.number/sl ! the $number of the source language
1.number/tl ! the $number of the target language
1.number/an ! the $number of the anaphora

By default all values are copied to parent nodes, so /sl will work on things other than lexical units. For comparisons and output, the anaphora value will be used if it exists, otherwise the target value if it exists, otherwise the source value if it exists, otherwise the empty string.

Variable passing can also specify particular side, if necessary.

NP.gender -> @n.$gender/tl @adj {2 _1 1} ;
! this will copy only the target value of $gender from @n to NP

Conditionals

Rule application can be further restricted with conditional statements:

NP -> @n @adj (1.gender/sl = 2.gender/sl, 1.number = 2.number) {2 _1 1} ;
! match a noun and an adjective, but only if they have the same number marking
! and the source language gender is the same

Output Conditionals

If the output of a rule is conditioned on what happens further up the tree, rather than just on the input, conditionals can be added to the output statements:

mood = ind opt nec inf ;
VP.mood.person.number -> @v.$person.$number NP.acc {should@vaux _ 1(mood=inf) _1 2} ($mood = opt)
                                                   {could@vaux _ 1(mood=inf) _1 2} ($mood = nec)
                                                   {1 _1 2} ; ! no conditional, so functions as an elsewhere case

An elsewhere case is required, since otherwise there might be no output.

Attribute Maps

This would be a way to convert certain sets of tags, either between two languages that have different sets of tenses, or between something like object agreement and number marking. (The following syntax is entirely provisional.)

object_agr = o1sg o1pl o2sg o2pl o3sg o3pl ;
number = sg pl ;
person = p1 p2 p3 ;

object_agr > person.number: o1sg p1.sg, o1pl p1.pl, o2sg p2.sg, o2pl p2.pl, o3sg p3.sg, o3pl p3.pl ;

VP -> @v NP {2(object_agr=1.object_agr) _1 1} ;

In this example, if the verb had <o2sg>, the noun would get object_agr=o2sg, person=p2, number=sg, with the first two tags probably being discarded on output.

tense = farpst nearpst pst prs fut nonpst ;

tense > tense: farpst pst, nearpst pst, prs nonpst, fut nonpst ;

In this example, no explicit assignment needs to take place and the 4 tenses of the source language (farpst, nearpst, prs, fut) would be automatically converted to the 2 of the target language (pst, nonpst).

Converting from 4 to 3 with something like

tense > tense: farpst pst, nearpst pst ;

should also work, the unchanged tags not needing to be explicitly mentioned.

Interpolation

Parsing clitics, such as User_talk:Popcorndude/Recursive_Transfer#Serbo-Croatian_clitics can be done using multiple output units

vbser n -> @n @vbser {2} {1} ;
NP -> @n @det {2 _1 1} ;
! should be able to handle "noun clitic determiner"

Outputting them, however, is more difficult. My current idea is to do something like this:

NP -> @det @n {2 _1 1};
VP -> NP @vbser {(_1 2)>1};

Where (_1 2)>1 means "put the space between the elements and element 2 after the first word of element 1". The corresponding syntax for a right-aligned clitic would be 1<(2 _1). New lexical units could also be put in the parentheses (even if there's only one thing being inserted, the parentheses should, I think, be mandatory for clarity).

I'm not sure whether this will cover all cases, but it should at least cover a lot of them.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 === Basic Rule Syntax ===
-Rules consist of a node type, a weight (optional?), a pattern, and an output.
+Rules consist of a node type, an optional weight, a pattern, and an output.
- NP -> 2: @det @adj @n {3 _2 2 _1 1} ;
+ NP -> 2.7: det adj.m n.*.sg {3 _2 2 _1 1} ;
+ VP -> 1.0: NP vblex {2 _1 1} |
+       NP vblex adv {2 _2 3 _1 1} ;
+The arrow can be written as either <code>-></code> or <code>→</code>.
-: Could support -> and → —[[User:Firespeaker|Firespeaker]] ([[User talk:Firespeaker|talk]]) 17:41, 29 May 2019 (CEST)
+The first rule matches lexical units or chunks with the sets of tags beginning with <code><det></code>, <code><adj><m></code>, and <code><n><*><sg></code>, respectively. It will then produce a chunk with the part-of-speech tag <code><NP></code> which contains those three nodes and the blanks between them in reverse order (n, adj, det).
-This gathers an det node, a adj node, and an n node and produces an NP node. Once all rules have been applied, the nodes they have gathered will be output according to their patterns. In this case in the order n adj det (the 3rd, the 2nd, the 1st).
+The second and third rules both produce <code><VP></code> chunks, so that output is written only once and the other components are separated by a pipe character.
-The weight of a parse is the sum (?) of all the rules involved in producing it and the parse with the lowest weight is output. There should probably be an additional factor of how many unconsolidated pieces a parse has so we prefer more complete parses (that is, "NP cnj NP" as 3 separate nodes has a lower weight than the consolidated version, but we want the consolidated one).
+Patterns are matched LRLM in stages. This is equivalent to applying all rules which can be applied before any rules can be applied to the outputs (see [[User:Popcorndude/Recursive_Transfer/Bytecode]] for the actual algorithm).
-Multiple rules which produce the same node type can be joined with pipes:
- NP -> 1: @det @n {2 _1 1} |
+ NP -> n {1} |
-: @num @n {1 _1 2} ;
+       NP adj {1 _1 2} ;
+ AP -> adj {1} ;
+If these rules were applied to an input of <code>n adj</code>, the first rule would match the noun and the third rule would match the adjective and the second rule would never apply because by the time it can match an <code>NP</code>, the next available token is not an <code>adj</code> but an <code>AP</code>.
+When there are multiple rules of the same length which all match, the one with the highest weight is applied. If there is a tie, the one that appears first in the rules file is applied. Due to the way the patterns are compiled, if two rules have identical patterns, the first one will always be applied, regardless of weight. If the weight is omitted, it will default to 0. User-defined weights cannot be negative.
-; Comments:
-* When you say "output" do you mean immediately? or do you mean the AST will be built with that order in mind? - [[User:Francis Tyers|Francis Tyers]] ([[User talk:Francis Tyers|talk]]) 05:48, 13 March 2019 (CET)
-** It uses the patterns to build the tree bottom-up and then when that's done it applies the output sections top-down (that way the verb phrase can set case on the noun phrase which can then set case on the noun). [[User:Popcorndude|Popcorndude]] ([[User talk:Popcorndude|talk]]) 14:59, 13 March 2019 (CET)
-* I guess the weights should also be lexicalised, but a priori rule weights are probably also a good idea(?) - [[User:Francis Tyers|Francis Tyers]] ([[User talk:Francis Tyers|talk]]) 05:48, 13 March 2019 (CET)
-** Would something like this be a reasonable way of lexicalising the weights? (from the [[User_talk:Popcorndude/Recursive_Transfer#Ambiguous_rules | ambiguous rules]] example) [[User:Popcorndude|Popcorndude]] ([[User talk:Popcorndude|talk]]) 19:17, 14 March 2019 (CET)
- de_nn1 = memoría ;
- de_nn2 = traducción ;
- de_nsn1 = hermana madre ;
- DE-S -> @det.pos @n {1 2} ;
- de_nofn1 = constitución guerra ;
- NP -> 1: $de_nn1@n de@pr $de_nn2@n {3 1} |
-: $de_nsn1@n de@pr DE-S {3 's@gen 1} |
-: $de_nofn1@n de@pr @num {1 2 3} |
-: @n de@pr @n {1 2 3} ;
-* Why isn't it <code>@det @adj @n</code> etc. (per below)? —[[User:Firespeaker|Firespeaker]] ([[User talk:Firespeaker|talk]]) 05:53, 13 March 2019 (CET)
-** Because I changed it partway through writing this page and forgot to fix this part. [[User:Popcorndude|Popcorndude]] ([[User talk:Popcorndude|talk]]) 14:59, 13 March 2019 (CET)
 === Attribute Lists ===
@@ Line 44: / Line 32: @@
  number = sg pl ND ;
+An attribute list can also specify undefined and default values:
-=== Lexical Units ===
+ gender = (GD m) m f GD;
+This defines the <code>gender</code> category as before, but with the addition that if any rule tries to read the gender of a node that doesn't have a gender tag, the result will be <code><GD></code> rather than the empty string. It also creates a rule which will run last (the weight is -1.0) that will replace <code><GD></code> with <code><m></code>.
+=== Tag Order ===
+The order of tags for each type of node must be defined like this:
+ n: _.gender.number;
+ adj: _.gender;
+ NP: _.number;
+Where <code>_</code> represents the lemma and the part of speech tag. Currently these patterns can only be defined based on a single part of speech tag, though it may eventually be possible to match based on multiple tags or to specify a different pattern for particular nodes.
+To specify a literal tag in a pattern, put it in angle brackets:
+ det: _.<def>.number;
+At present, chunk tags must also be listed in the rules like so:
+ NP.number -> n adj {2 _1 1};
+But this redundancy will hopefully be removed soon.
+=== Patterns ===
+An element of a pattern must match a single, literal part of speech tag. In order to match multiple part of speech tags, create a separate rule which matches each of them:
+ NOM -> n {1} | np {1};
+To match a lemma or pseudolemma, place it before the part of speech tag, separated by <code>@</code>:
+ NP -> the@det n {2 _1 1};
+It is also possible to match a category of lemmas:
+ days = sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday;
+ date -> $days@n the@det num.ord {2 _2 3 _1 1};
+Tags besides part of speech can be matched as shown above.
+Pattern elements can also specify values for the tags of the chunk being output by the rule.
+ number = (ND sg) sg pl sp ND;
+ NP.number -> n.$number adj {1};
+This rule specifies that the number tag of the NP chunk should be copied from the noun. It will use the target language side if that is available. If not, it will proceed to the reference side, and then the source side. If all three of these are empty, it will use the default value <code><ND></code>. To require that a particular variable be taken from a particular side, put the side after a slash:
+ NP.number -> det.$number/ref n {1 _1 2};
+<code>/sl</code> refers to the source language, <code>/tl</code> to the target language, and <code>/ref</code> to anything added by anaphora resolution.
-Lexical units are matched like this:
+If a pattern element is contributing several tags to the chunk, the following shortcut is available:
- potato@n.sg ! matches "potato" with tags <n> and <sg>, possibly with others
- @n          ! matches any noun
+ NP.number.gender -> %n adj {2 _1 1};
-Any of these literals can be replaced with an attribute category using $
+The <code>%</code> indicates the noun is the source of all chunk tags not elsewhere specified.
- number = sg pl ;
- potato@n.$number ! matches potato<n><sg> and potato<n><pl>
- vegetable = potato carrot radish ;
- $vegetable@n.sg  ! matches potato<n><sg>, carrot<n><sg>, and radish<n><sg>
+To specify a literal value for a chunk tag, put it in square brackets after the pattern like this:
-The tags and attributes are neither ordered nor exhaustive.
+ NP.gender.number -> 0: NP cnjcoo NP [$gender=m, $number=pl] {1 _1 2 _2 3} |
- potato@n.sg
+: NP.f cnjcoo NP.f [$gender=f, $number=pl] {1 _1 2 _2 3} |
- ! This matches all of the following:
+: NP.*.sg or@cnjcoo NP.*.sg [$gender=m, $number=sg] {1 _1 2 _2 3} |
- ! potato<n><sg>
+: NP.f.sg or@cnjcoo NP.f.sg [$gender=f, $number=sg] {1 _1 2 _2 3} ;
- ! potato<n><m><sg>
- ! potato<sg><n>
- ! potato<sg><imp><n><o3pl>
+That is, treat the gender of the phrase as masculine unless both elements are feminine and the number as singular unless the conjunction is "or" and both elements are singular.
-=== Lexical Unit Output ===
+The pattern only looks at the source language, but it is possible to add constraints:
-The following rules specify how to output tags for particular parts of speech:
+ conj_list = and or;
- n: _.gender.number ;
+ NP.gender.number -> %NP cnjcoo NP ((2.lem/tl in conj_list) and ~(3.gender = 1.gender)) {1 _1 2 _2 3};
- ! output: lemma<n><[gender]><[number]>
- prn.pers: _.person.number ;
- ! output: lemma<prn><pers><[person]><[number]>
- det.dem: _.<sp> ;
- ! output: lemma<det><def><sp>
+This will only match the pattern if it is also the case that the target language lemma of the conjunction is "and" or "or" and the two NPs have different genders. The outermost parentheses are required and order of operations is not guaranteed to make any sense, so please put parentheses around everything.
-Where _ represents the set of tags that were matched in choosing this rule, and everything else is the name of a category. Literal tags can be inserted using angle brackets.
 === Blanks ===

Difference between revisions of "Apertium-recursive/Formalism"

Revision as of 17:42, 13 June 2019

Contents

Basic Rule Syntax

Attribute Lists

Tag Order

Patterns

Blanks

Variables

Conditionals

Output Conditionals

Attribute Maps

Interpolation

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