Implementing a Definite Clause Grammar for Parsing Surface Syntax

Abstract : With this report we aim to serve several ends: We acquaint interested readers with some simple techniques for processing natural language (English) sentences. We present basic ideas and document our implementation of a software environment for building parsers that use these techniques. We illustrate the use of the implementation by recounting the development of an elementary (or naive) parser in the form of a definite clause grammar. We discuss choices we have made and some of the issues considered in making these choices. We also mention some of the possible extensions to the grammar. Keywords: Computational linguistics.