Dictionary
m (UNL-NL Dictionary Specs moved to UNL Dictionary Specs) |
Revision as of 08:10, 25 October 2009
The UNL-NL dictionaries are bilingual dictionaries linking UWs to natural language (NL) words. They can be unidirectional (UNL-to-NL or NL-to-UNL) or bidirectional (NL-to-UNL-to-NL). UNL-to-NL dictionaries are used for deconversion, while NL-to-UNL are used for enconversion. In what follows, we present the current specifications for UNL-NL dictionaries. They are not mandatory but are required from those interested in using UNL Centre's and UNDL Foundation's tools. The features marked with an * are only supported by UNDL Foundation's tools.
Contents |
Syntax
In the UNL System, the UNL-NL dictionaries are plain text files with a single entry per line in the following format:
[NLW] {ID} “UW” (ATTR , ... ) < LG , FRE , PRI >; COMMENTS
Where:
- NLW
- The lexical item of the natural language. Its format should be decided by the dictionary builder. It can be:
- a multiword expression: [United States of America]
- a compound: [hot-dog]
- a simple word: [happiness]
- a simple morpheme: [happ]
- a complex structure (see below): [[bring] [back]]*
- a non-motivated linguistic entity: [g]
- ID
- The unique identifier (primary-key) of the entry.
- UW
- The Universal Word of UNL. This field can be empty if a word does not need a UW.
- ATTR
- The list of features of the NLW. It can be:
- a list of simple features: (NOU, MCL, SNG)
- a list of attribute-value pairs: (pos=NOU, gen=MCL, num=SNG)*
- a list of transformation rules (see below): (plural:=”oo”:”ee”)*
Attributes should be separated by “,”.
- FLG
- The two-character language code according to ISO 639-1.
- FRE
- The frequency of NLW in natural texts. Used for natural language analysis (NL-UNL). It can range from 0 (less frequent) to 255 (most frequent).
- PRI
- The priority of the NLW. Used for natural language generation (UNL-NL). It can range from 0 to 255.
- COMMENT
- Any comment necessary to clarify the mapping between NL and UNL entries. It should end with the return code.
The features marked with * are not supported by the UNL Centre's tools
Complex structures as NLW*
In order to deal with infixation, the NLW can be represented as a complex structure comprising several sub-NLW entries. The syntax for complex NLWs is:
[[sub-NLW][sub-NLW]...[sub-NLW]] {ID} “UW” (ATTR , ..., 1#(ATTR, ...), 2#(ATTR, ...), ...) < LG , FRE , PRI >; COMMENTS
Where:
[sub-NLW] is a part of the NLW;
1#(ATTR, ...) are the specific features for the first sub-NLW to appear in the NLW;
2#(ATTR, ...) are the specific features for the second sub-NLW to appear in the NLW;
and so on.
The first sub-NLW to appear in a NLW will be always the #1, the second the #2, and so on.
The feature list preceded by <number># will apply only to the corresponding sub-NLW.
The features outside the sub-NLW feature lists are shared by all sub-NLWs.
- Example
- [[bring] [back]] {} "to bring back(icl>to bring)" (pos=VER, 01#(past:=4>ought), 02#(pos:PRE)) <en, 0, 0>;
- In the entry above, the NLW has been split into two different sub-NLWs ([bring] and [back] with a blank space in between). Each of these sub-NLWs has different features, referred to in the embedded parentheses inside the feature list. The sub-NLW [bring], which was the first to appear, has the feature "past:=4>ought", while the sub-NLW [back], which was the second, has the feature "pos:PRE". The feature "pos=VER", which is outside the specific feature lists, is shared by both of them.
- [[bring] [back]] {} "to bring back(icl>to bring)" (pos=VER, 01#(past:=4>ought), 02#(pos:PRE)) <en, 0, 0>;
Transformation rules for dictionary entries*
In order to deal with exceptions and irregular forms, the following rules can be included inside dictionary entries (in the feature list field):
- Replacement
- <ATTRIBUTE>”:=”<SOURCE>”:”<TARGET> or
- <ATTRIBUTE>”:=["<INTERVAL>"]:”<TARGET>
- Example: plural:="oo":"ee" (it means that, in case of the feature "plural", the "oo" string will be replaced by "ee" in the NLW, as in foot>feet)
- Example: plural:=[2,3]:"ee" (it means that, in case of the feature "plural", the string "ee" will replace the string that goes from the second to the third character)
- Left appending
- <ATTRIBUTE> ”:=” <LEFT ADDITION> ”<” <LEFT DELETION>
- Example: not:="un"<0 (it means that, in case of the feature "not", the string "un" will be added to the left of the NLW, as in dress>undress)
- Right appending
- <ATTRIBUTE> ”:=” <RIGHT DELETION> ”>” <RIGHT ADDITION>
- Example: plural:="y">"ies" (it means that, in case of the feature "plural", the rightmost "y" will be deleted and the "ies" string will be added to the right of the NLW, as in baby>babies)
Where:
<ATTRIBUTE> is the name of the attribute
<SOURCE> is the original form to be replaced (if empty, it means that the whole NLW should be replaced)
<TARGET> is the form to be used instead of the source (if empty, it means that the whole NLW should be deleted)
<LEFT DELETION> is the string or the number of characters from the beginning of the NLW to be deleted before the addition of the LEFT ADDITION
<RIGHT DELETION> is the string or the number of characters from the end of the NLW to be deleted before the addition of the RIGHT ADDITION
<LEFT ADDITION> is the string to be added to beginning of the NLW
<RIGHT ADDITION> is the string to be added to the end of the NLW
Examples of dictionary entries
[a]{} "" (pos=DFA) <en,0,0>;
[book]{} "book(icl>thing)" (pos=N) <en,0,0>;
[buy]{} "buy(icl>do)" (pos=DTV, PP=04) <en,0,0>;
[book] {} “book(icl>document)” (pos=NOU) <en,0,0>;
[foot] {} “foot(icl>vertebrate foot) (pos=NOU, pl:=”feet”) <en,0,0>;
[baby] {} “baby(icl>child) (pos=NOU, pl:=”y”>”ies”) <en,0,0>;
[baby] {} “baby(icl>child) (pos=NOU, pl:=1>”ies”) <en,0,0>;