The non-associativity of polarized tree-based grammars

Yael Cohen-Sygal, Shuly Wintner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Polarities are used to sanction grammar fragment combination in high level tree-based formalisms such as eXtenssible MetaGrammar (XMG) and polarized unification grammars (PUG). We show that attaching polarities to tree nodes renders the combination operation non-associative, and in practice leads to overgeneration. We first provide some examples of non-associative combination operators in existing polarity-based formalisms. We then prove that there is no other nontrivial polarity system for which grammar combination is associative. This property of polarities casts doubt on the usability of polarity-based grammars for grammar engineering.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing - 8th International Conference, CICLing 2007, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages208-217
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)354070938X, 9783540709381
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event8th Annual Conference on Intelligent Text Processing and Computational Linguistics, CICLing 2007 - Mexico City, Mexico
Duration: 18 Feb 200724 Feb 2007

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume4394 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference8th Annual Conference on Intelligent Text Processing and Computational Linguistics, CICLing 2007
Country/TerritoryMexico
CityMexico City
Period18/02/0724/02/07

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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