LINGER: A PROLOG TOOL FOR GRAMMAR ANALYSIS OF WESTERN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES Contributed by Paul O'Brien and Masoud Yazdani, Exeter University LINGER is a language-independent system to analyse natural language sentences and report and correct grammatical errors encountered. An important objective is that the system should be easily configured for a particular natural language by an expert in that language but not in computer science. [J. Barchan and J. Wusteman] This library contains two versions of Linger. The older one contains only a French grammar. The more recent also has German, Spanish, and English. Both versions were contributed by Paul O'Brien and Masoud Yazdani, and were written in Expert Systems International Prolog-2. When I received the older version (1988), I made some changes so that it would run on other Prologs, tested it, and commented each source file about the changes. I have not yet done so with the more modern version, so that is still in the original Prolog-2 source. As well as the source of Linger, this entry also includes two papers: "A Prolog-Based Tool For Grammar Analysis Of Western European Languages" by J. Barchan and J. Wusteman: Abstract: "In this article, we give an overview of the Language- INdependent Grammatical Error Reporter (LINGER). The four key techniques in LINGER are identified, the system design and behavior described, and directions for future research surveyed". "Spanish LINGER" by J. Uren & M. Yazdani: Abstract: This paper describes a system currently being developed for the teaching of Modern Languages that incorporates "human like" knowledge of the domain that it is teaching. The project is a progression from the previously (Barchan, Woodmansee and Yazdani, 1986) developed method of construct- ing tutoring systems for specific tasks towards producing tools capable of greater generality and use. We hope to clarify the issues arising from the attempt to build a flexible tutoring system, for more than one language domain, which is capable of being used by teachers in a variety of ways. LINGER (Language INdependent Grammatical Error Reporter) was originally developed by Barchan(1987) as a prototype tool and since then has been the subject of a series of interrelated projects to evaluate its potential as a basis for the teaching of Modern Languages. In this paper we describe the architecture of LINGER in the context of the experiences gained when we tried to extend it to deal with the Spanish language. A sample run is shown here: ?- [ 'linger_shell.pl' ]. Type "run" to start LINGER linger_shell.pl consulted yes ?- run. LINGER -- Language INdependent Grammatical Error Reporter What language do you want (french/english/spanish/german/italian)? ==> |: french. consulting Grammar consulting Dictionary Type your sentence ==>|: tu est une chat. Pre-parsing sentence Trying for a legal parse Legal parse found Parse tree selected: sentence main_clause subj_phr noun_pron_phr pronoun : [tu, 1] verb_phr pos_or_neg_verb_cons pos_verb_cons rp_pron_list pron_list pron_list2 governing_verb verb_or_aux_verb aux_verb : [est, 2] dir_obj_phr noun_phr determiner : [une, 3] adj_list noun : [chat, 4] adj_list indir_obj_phr Your sentence was: --- tu est une chat . --- I think the correct version of your sentence should read: >>> tu est un chat . <<< **** Comments **** determiner "une" changed to "un" : [gender(m), plurality(s), apostrophe(n)] **** End Comments **** Masoud Yazdani would like to know if you intend to use Linger. His Janet E-mail address is MASOUD @ UK.AC.EXETER.CS [JNP] SIZE : 366 kilobytes. CHECKED ON EDINBURGH-COMPATIBLE (POPLOG) PROLOG : yes, for the older version. PORTABILITY : no known problems. Converting the newer version from Prolog-2 should be fairly easy (the main problem will probably be that Prolog-2 name/2 is incompatible with those in other Prologs). Be guided by my comments in the older version. INTERNAL DOCUMENTATION : in the older version, my comments for portability problems.