[developers] LOGON transfer rules filling in variable properties

[Stephan Oepen]

i had to look up some examples from the original LOGON Transfer Matrix
(in SVN) myself, but it would seem that the FLAGS.EQUAL mechanism is
supported for variable properties.  thus, something in the following
spirit should work (and not cycle):

  INPUT < [ ARG0 [ MOOD mood & #mood ] ] >,
  OUTPUT < +copy+ & [ ARG0 [ MOOD realis ] ] >,
  FLAGS.EQUALS < #mood >

if, for some reason, the above refuses to cooperate, i dimly recall
introducing ‘decorator’ EPs (e.g. ‘plural_noun_mark’ in the Transfer
Matrix) to prevent cyclic rule applications: once the variable
property is refined, one can put a mark on that variable, and
somewhere towards the end of transfer all marks can be dropped ...

good luck putting it all together!  oe


On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 9:43 PM, Emily M. Bender <ebender at uw.edu> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I'm reaching the end of this year's Ling 567, and this time around we have
> two languages (Bardi [bcj] and Lithuanian [lit]) that contrast realis and
> irrealis
> mood, where irrealis is required in negated sentences but also possible
> elsewhere (with other uses).
>
> We typically use VPM to set defaults for various variable properties to keep
> the range of generator outputs down in our MT set up, but can't in this
> case set MOOD to realis by default, since then we don't get any output
> for negated sentences.
>
> It seemed tempting to try to create a family of transfer rules that
> specialize
> MOOD on the ARG0 of negated _v_rels (i.e. whose LBL is the LARG of a qeq
> whose HARG is the ARG1 of neg_rel) to [ MOOD irrealis ] and that of
> _v_rels that aren't negated to [ MOOD realis ].  The trouble is, I can't
> figure
> out a way to write this rule that doesn't feed itself.
>
> Is there something I'm missing, or (perhaps more likely) is this just not an
> intended use case for the transfer rules/otherwise a bad idea in some way?
>
> Thanks,
> Emily
>
> --
> Emily M. Bender
> Professor, Department of Linguistics
> Check out CLMS on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/uwclma
>