Report Number: CS-TR-68-112
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: A control language for transformational grammar
Author: Friedman, Joyce
Author: Pollack, Bary W.
Date: August 1968
Abstract: Various orders of application of transformations have been
considered in transformational grammar, ranging from unorder
to cyclical orders involving notions of "lowest sentence" and
of numerical indices on depth of embedding. The general
theory of transformational grammar does not yet offer a
uniform set of "traffic rules" which are accepted by most
linguists. Thus, in designing a model of transformational
grammar, it seems advisable to allow the specification of the
order and point of application of transformations to be a
proper part of the grammar.
In this paper we present a simple control language designed
to be used by linguists for this specification.
In the control language the user has the ability to:
1. Group transformations into ordered sets and apply
transformations either individually or by transformation set.
2. Specify the order in which the transformation sets are to
be considered.
3. Specify the subtrees in which a transformation set is to
be applied.
4. Allow the order of application to depend on which
transformations have previously modified the tree.
5. Apply a transformation set either once or repeatedly.
In addition, since the control language has been implemented
as part of a computer system, the behavior of the
transformations may be monitored giving additional
information on their operation.
In this paper we present the control language and examples of
its use. Discussion of the computer implementation will be
found in [Pollack, B.W. The Control Program and Associated
Subroutines. Stanford University. Computer Science
Department. Computational Linguistics Project. Report no.
AF-28. June 1968.].
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/68/112/CS-TR-68-112.pdf