Grammar Engineering Frequently Asked Questions

One of my words is showing up in the chart twice. Why?

This situation can arise if you have a multi-word lexical entry, and another lexical entry for just part of the multi-word, for example:

bastille-day := noun-lex &
  [ STEM < "bastille", "day" >,
    SYNSEM.LOCAL.LKEYS.KEYREL "_bastille_day_n_rel" ].

day := noun-lex &
  [ STEM < "day" >,
    SYNSEM.LOCAL.LKEYS.KEYREL "_day_n_rel" ].

If you try to parse a sentence with Bastille Day, the LKB will find lexical entries for both Bastille Day and day and put them both in the chart. Unless you also have an independent lexical entry for Bastille, the entry for just day won't be included in any complete parses, but the algorithm doesn't know this.

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-- EmilyBender - 02 Nov 2004