[developers] Additions to the Simple MRS format

[Michael Wayne Goodman]

I forgot to mention the addition of ICONS. It's already been
implemented (in ACE, at least), but it would be useful to define it as
part of the new format. It looks much like an HCONS list:

ICONS: < ... >

And the items on the list take the form:

target relation clause

... where target and clause are individual variables (i, e, or x), and
don't necessarily need to be linked to EPs in the MRS (i.e. it can be
an unbound "i" variable for a dropped argument). The set of relations
is not fixed, as with HCONS, but defined by the grammar.

For example, in Japanese you may have a question 犬が何をした？ "What did the
dog do?", with a response 吠えた "Barked." with a dropped subject. The
MRS representing the response with the dropped subject as the topic
and the verb as the focus might be:

[ TOP: h0
  INDEX: e2 [ e TENSE: past MOOD: indicative PROG: - PERF: - ASPECT:
default_aspect PASS: - SF: prop ]
  RELS: < [ "_hoeru_v_1_rel"<0:2> LBL: h1 ARG0: e2 ARG1: i3 ] >
  HCONS: < h0 qeq h1 >
  ICONS: < i3 topic e2 e2 focus e2 > ]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 1:42 PM, Michael Wayne Goodman
<goodmami at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> It was noted in Tomar that the Simple MRS format lacked some
> attributes that are present in the XML format, and that these
> attributes can be useful for users of MRS. The attributes are:
>
>   * A Lnk value (e.g. <cfrom:cto>) for the whole MRS
>   * "surface" on the top level of the MRS
>   * "surface" on the EPs
>
> Stephan, Ann, Glenn, Woodley, and myself---developers of software that
> produce Simple MRS (forgive me if I've left someone out)---have
> discussed how to add these to the format, and we have come up with a
> way to represent them matching the aesthetics of the original format
> and, more importantly, maintaining backwards compatibility (by making
> the additions optional and by not outputting them if the data is not
> specified).
>
> We also agreed to make a (long overdue) change so that "LTOP" becomes
> "TOP", since in full utterances the thing currently called LTOP is in
> fact TOP (i.e. a global top, rather than local; this is further
> discussed at the bottom of this email).
>
> Finally, we agreed to assign a version number to this updated format
> (e.g. v1.1, where the currently used format is v1.0), so that
> processors can, in theory, input and output MRSs compliant with either
> format.
>
> While the implementation details were discussed off-list, we want to
> bring the discussion to developers at delph-in.net (as we agreed to do in
> Tomar), so that others have a chance to see and comment on the
> proposal.
>
> Here is an example MRS in the new format:
>
> [ <0:41> "I am sure I shall say nothing of the kind."
>   TOP: h0
>   INDEX: e2 [ e SF: prop TENSE: pres MOOD: indicative PROG: - PERF: - ]
>   RELS: < [ pron_rel<0:1> "I" LBL: h4 ARG0: x3 [ x PERS: 1 NUM: sg
> PRONTYPE: std_pron ] ]
>           [ pronoun_q_rel<0:1> LBL: h5 ARG0: x3 RSTR: h6 BODY: h7 ]
>           [ "_sure_a_of_rel"<5:9> "sure" LBL: h1 ARG0: e2 ARG1: x3 ARG2: h8 ]
>           [ pron_rel<15:16> "I" LBL: h9 ARG0: x10 [ x PERS: 1 NUM: sg
> PRONTYPE: std_pron ] ]
>           [ pronoun_q_rel<15:16> LBL: h11 ARG0: x10 RSTR: h12 BODY: h13 ]
>           [ "_say_v_1_rel"<23:26> "say" LBL: h14 ARG0: e15 [ e SF:
> prop TENSE: fut MOOD: indicative PROG: - PERF: - ] ARG1: x10 ARG2: x16
> [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg ] ]
>           [ thing_rel<27:34> "nothing" LBL: h17 ARG0: x16 ]
>           [ _no_q_rel<27:34> "nothing" LBL: h18 ARG0: x16 RSTR: h19 BODY: h20 ]
>           [ _of_p_rel<35:37> "of" LBL: h17 ARG0: e21 [ e SF: prop ]
> ARG1: x16 ARG2: x22 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg IND: + ] ]
>           [ _the_q_rel<38:41> "the" LBL: h23 ARG0: x22 RSTR: h24 BODY: h25 ]
>           [ "_kind_n_of-n_rel"<42:47> "kind" LBL: h26 ARG0: x22 ARG1: i27 ] >
>   HCONS: < h0 qeq h1 h6 qeq h4 h8 qeq h14 h12 qeq h9 h19 qeq h17 h24 qeq h26 > ]
>
> (I made up the surface values for illustration, so in practice they
> may differ, but the formatting will remain the same.)
>
> We also want to hear how your grammars deal with the TOP variable. In
> general, I think, the (actual) LTOP is equated with the top handle of
> a local structure, but when a full utterance is produced, the TOP (or
> GTOP, in Matrix-derived grammars) is QEQ'd to the handle (i.e. GTOP
> qeq LTOP), but this might not be true for all grammars. In particular,
> we'd like to know if it's ever necessary to have both TOP *and* LTOP
> representable in an MRS.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> -Michael Wayne Goodman



-- 
-Michael Wayne Goodman